By Jeffri Chadiha | Sept. 11, 2018

When Veach saw that, he looked at Cabott and said, "I think we're gonna be good here." At this year's NFL Scouting Combine, Veach raised eyebrows when he said Mahomes was "one of the best players I've ever seen," but he hasn't backed off on that statement. "[The media] kind of ran with that," Veach said. "I don't know if people thought I meant pro or college, but I meant it in regard to all the college quarterbacks that I've watched over the years. He's probably the best one I've ever seen, and I'm certainly standing by that. Some of the stuff he can do -- his tremendous vision, his toughness in the pocket, instincts and that rare arm strength -- I mean, he can do things I haven't seen before on tape."

Mahomes has long been accustomed to exciting people with his athletic potential. He grew up around the highest levels of sports, as he spent most of his summers hanging out in Major League clubhouses. His father played for six teams over the course of 11 seasons (between 1992 and 2003), and Mahomes eventually developed an impressive list of role models. If he wasn't watching Alex Rodriguez spending hours hitting off a tee, he was studying how meticulously Mike Piazza dissected tape of hitters or how Derek Jeter perfected his fielding habits.

Mahomes wasn't just enamored by what these future Hall-of-Famers did on the field. As his godfather, former Major League pitcher LaTroy Hawkins, said, "He learned about leadership, camaraderie, being in the same room and connecting with people from all over the world. He also learned what not to do."

Said Mahomes: "I always remembered those guys getting in extra work. They were the top guys in the game for a long time, and you saw how much work they actually put into it."

It appeared Mahomes was destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a professional baseball player, until an unexpected road block emerged when he started playing football at Whitehouse High School in Upper East Texas. He spent his freshman and sophomore years as a safety, and had to be talked out of quitting by his mother, Randi, because he wasn't allowed to play quarterback. After winning the signal-caller job as a junior, Mahomes tossed 46 touchdown passes in his first season under center. He was even more exciting as a senior, when he threw for 4,619 yards, rushed for 948 more, and scored 65 total touchdowns. He had thoroughly fallen in love with the sport.

The huge crowds on Friday nights, the obvious connection he felt while working alongside his longtime friends, the control he enjoyed while running a wide-open offense -- it all spoke to Mahomes in ways other sports, even baseball, never did. Eventually, he decided he would follow football as far as it could take him. But that meant turning his back on being a high pick in the Major League Baseball draft and potentially disappointing Patrick Sr., who thought his son had a better option in a sport where he'd already showcased his talents as an All-State pitcher, shortstop and outfielder.

"It wasn't that I pushed him toward baseball," Patrick Sr. said, "I just thought it would be an easier route." Added Mahomes, who was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 37th round of the 2014 MLB draft even after he made it clear he was focusing on football: "I knew I could go and play in the minors and play baseball and do those things. But at the same time, I really wanted to just expand on my knowledge and love for the game of football. It was a very risky move, but I mean, it was something that I needed to do."

Mahomes entered his freshman training camp at Texas Tech as a backup to Davis Webb. It also was the first time he realized he'd have to sit on the bench. When Webb sustained a shoulder injury during an early season game against Oklahoma State, Mahomes was so frazzled that he initially grabbed the wrong helmet as he prepared to warm up on the sideline. Once he entered the game, he fumbled the football and then threw an interception after picking it up, which was something Red Raiders coach Kliff Kingsbury had never witnessed in his almost 20 years of playing and coaching.

Mahomes did throw a touchdown pass on one of the two throws he completed in that contest, but he also learned a valuable lesson: He couldn't survive on talent alone. "I don't think Patrick had ever [sat on the bench] at anything he tried," Kingsbury said. "And at that time, he didn't take the game-planning as seriously as he should have. When Davis went down in that game, Patrick had some plays where he embarrassed himself. After that was over, he vowed to never be in that position again."

Mahomes matured so quickly he finished his freshman season by throwing for at least 300 yards in Tech's final three games, including a 598-yard, six-touchdown effort in a 48-46 loss to Baylor. He quit the Texas Tech baseball team the next summer and dominated even more, compiling 9,705 passing yards, 77 touchdown passes and 25 interceptions over the next two years. By the time Mahomes announced he was foregoing his senior year to enter the 2017 draft, Veach was pushing hard for the Chiefs to select him. He'd scouted Mahomes since he was a sophomore, and he saw the intangibles as well as the natural talent, the fact that, as Kingsbury said, "Patrick loves that feeling when the lights come on, but he never separates himself from the team. He's still a humble person."

Veach lobbied his boss, John Dorsey, who was Kansas City's GM at the time. He urged Reid to buy in as well, which eventually happened after the coach saw the intelligence the quarterback possessed. "I thought [having a smart quarterback] was important from where we had worked our way with Alex," Reid said. "We had incorporated a lot of stuff, so it was important that whoever came in had the aptitude to be able to pick up all this information. We felt he could handle that. He picks things up very easy. He can spit things out very easy. Our plays have a tendency to have a lot of words, [and] I just saw he had enough gigabytes to work it out."

The Chiefs ultimately made a bold move to acquire Mahomes, as they traded their first- and third-round picks in 2017 and their 2018 first-round pick to Buffalo in order to move from the 27th overall selection to 10th. They also believed they had the ideal situation in which to nurture the young quarterback. Mahomes spent nearly the entire season serving an apprenticeship to Smith. He wowed his teammates in practice by throwing bullets on the scout-team offense and committed himself to learning everything possible from Smith and offensive quality control coach Mike Kafka, who was promoted to quarterbacks coach in the offseason.

"I learned how to be a professional quarterback," Mahomes said. "Alex had a ton of success, and I saw the everyday grind of making sure he's prepared … that nothing surprises him when the game came. It helped me take my studying and my habits to a different level of understanding what was needed to have success on the field."

Mahomes made the most of his one opportunity to show what he'd learned over the course of last year. The Chiefs had already sealed their second consecutive AFC West championship when they reached their season-finale against Denver, so Reid let Mahomes and several other backups play in that contest. Mahomes spent the entire week working with Kafka and Reid on the game plan, while Smith and then-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy focused on the playoffs. By the time Mahomes walked out of his final meeting with Reid on Friday afternoon, the head coach was so excited that he told his assistants, "We're going to kick their tails."

Mahomes completed 22 of 35 passes for 284 yards. He threw one interception, but he also led Kansas City on a game-winning drive in the final minute of that 27-24 win. Mahomes looked so good in his debut that Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib -- who faced Mahomes in what turned out to be his last game as a Bronco -- went on Vic Lombardi 's radio show in Denver two days later and gushed over the performance. As Talib, now a member of the Los Angeles Rams, told the host at the time, "I saw enough of Patrick Mahomes to think Alex Smith is going to be a free agent next year."

The wait to see Mahomes in a real game again had seemed eternal since that debut. The excitement increased when the Chiefs traded Smith to the Redskins in March. It grew even more when word spread Mahomes was organizing workouts with his receivers at various locations around Kansas City in the spring. Even the sighting of Mahomes at different events thrilled fans. Whether he was throwing out the first pitch at a Royals game, cheering wildly at a Sporting KC contest, or simply wearing jean shorts somewhere, the prevailing belief was that the man could do no wrong.

Of course, none of that will matter if Mahomes isn't ready to answer the question Hawkins posed to him when the quarterback was deciding about entering the NFL: Was the young signal-caller truly ready to lead men? "I want people to know that I'm going to leave every single thing on the field," Mahomes said. "I love this game, and I'm gonna try to win every single game, and I'm hoping that we come out with a lot of success."

Added Reid: "Everything is not going to be perfect, and we're not going to talk about him being Picasso the first year. It's going to take some time here to learn."

That all sounds great, but those people who've known Patrick Mahomes II for a long time also believe that his greatest strength is defying the odds. He's done it since he was a kid, and, as Sunday revealed, there are plenty of surprises still left in him.

"My boy is definitely going to make some mistakes this year," Mahomes Sr. said. "But he's also going to blow people away with some of the things he does. You can count on that."

_____________________________________________________________________

Editors: Andy Fenelon, Tom Blair, Dan Parr | Illustration: Albert Lee