The Man Who Found Patrick Mahomes…

a dynasty in professional sports is a rare sight it's there Harman jackpot Kansas City the future yeah just know that the Kansas City Chiefs are never underdogs just know that the Kansas City Chiefs however have found a way to build one but this whole thing the Super Bowls the legend the success none of it would have been possible without one man one man who comb through days of tape to take a risk on a kid one man who found a diamond in the rough and spent years convincing a franchise to see his vision the one man who found a future goat this is the unlikely story of the man who found Patrick [Music] Mahomes with the 10 pick in the 2017 NFL draft the Kansas City chief select Patrick Mahomes is [Applause] second see back in 2013 a young Scout by the name of Brett V followed coach Andy Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs he accepted a position as a team's pro and college Personnel analyst a vague undefined front office role that doubled as a blank canvas a dream job for an upwardly mobile Football Scout V worked under general manager John dorsy and Chris Ballard V kind of did a little of everything College scouting Pro Personnel work the job description was basically let's just see what you got but what vich did better than anyone on the staff above all else was he watch the tape of football players it seems simple it seems like something any Scout should be good at but if you've seen the movie ER know anything about Michael Jordan and Nike you know how difficult SE outing can really be money can buy you almost anything it can't buy you immortality that you have to earn I'm going to look you in the eyes and I'm going to tell you the future you were cut from your high school basketball team you wield your way to the NBA you're going to win championships if you think you understand how much tape football scouts actually consume in a given year I promise you're wrong it is astonishing astounding almost a sickening amount when dorsy came to Kansas City the organization Scouts spent 17 days before the NFL scouting combine watching tape of college players Marathon sessions began at 5:00 a.m. and sometimes lasted into the evening this was like a training camp for Scouts dorsy was the type of manager that believed franchise players could be found through filmor and that if you couldn't find an answer about a player on tape it probably didn't exist in the old scout view the best way to find Talent the only way to build a championship roster that could win a Super Bowl was to grind the tape three four five games at a time so much tape that if you looked up at the clock and realized 5 hours that pass and your brain wasn't completely numb well maybe you were on to something this is what happened to Brett V one day in early 2016 he was looking at an offensive lineman from Texas Tech who was projected to go in the NFL draft that spring among the first games he watched was Texas Tech's 56 to 27 loss to LSU in the Texas Bull on December 29th 2015 now this wasn't much of a Game LSU had an All-American running back and Leonard forette and NFL Talent all over the field but as V watched he kept finding himself drawn to the quarterback from Texas Tech who was slinging sidearm passes scrambling around and fighting like hell to keep his overmatch team in the game V even once joked to his colleagues that he had an internal excom meter that surfaces when he watches football players he described it as like a crude measurement system that existed in his mind and in his gut and on the first day that he witnessed Patrick Mahomes play that excom meter system overloaded so Mahomes had just finished his sophomore season just two years removed from White House High School he thrown for 4,653 yards as a sophomore and put up big numbers in the Red Raiders Air Raid Offense as most Texas set quarterbacks did but owing to his quiet college recruitment and the fact that he wasn't eligible for the draft for another year he wasn't exactly on NFL Radars so V thought to himself who is this guy that question it quickly became an obsession who was Patrick Mahomes what was his story why was he at Texas Tech did he have the right size how old was he would he be in the draft next year these questions eventually LED V down a rabbit hole more and more tape more ridiculous throws and more questions that was all until one day that spring he was grinding Mahomes tape on a quiet weekend inside the chief's offices when head coach Andy Reid walked by Reed was curious what V had been up to and well V had he simple answer he was watching the next quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs however the issue V was the only one that believed that see there was something about the way Mom's body worked how his right arm could unleash thunderbolts at the most awkward angles how he was built like a sturdy running back with a backside that once helped him earn the nicknamed fat trick at Texas Tech V had less than a decade of scouting experience since joining Andy Reed and Philly but the more he watched the more he was certain momes was the best football player he had ever seen he would spend fall of 2016 combing through Texas Tech film cutting up clips and sending them to Andy Reid he used his salesman touch to Lobby to General Manager John dorsy who would all in all have the final say at the draft at one point in late fall v put together around 10 minutes of Mom's highlights and flooded Andy Reed's phone that was until Coach finally responded saying okay that's enough wait until the season's over that season saw the Chiefs finished 12-4 and won their first AFC West Title since 2010 but at some point in the New Year Reed came across one of the first media mock drafts for the upcoming 2017 NFL draft he texted ve to come into his office where he had a print out of the first round V was curious why was momes not even listed well that was because the doubter saw a system quarterback a description typically reserved for college quarterbacks who were said to benefit from playing in a high-powered or innovated spread passing attack let's just loosen up with batting practice right down the middle who's the player that everybody down there loves OJ Howard it was clear really after the first practice and the doubters also saw a project that had adventurous footwork and Questionable decisionmaking ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay even wrote that momes misses entirely too many open targets because his mechanics are all over the place the NFL Network's Mike Mayo had momes ranked as the fourth best quarterback in the draft behind Notre Dame's Deshawn Kaiser Clemson's deshun Watson and North Carolina's Mitch trabis when Mahomes heard back from the NFL draft Advisory Board a panel of Executives and scouting experts who assigned grades to prospective players told him that he was at best a second round pick now don't get me wrong here there were explanations for his flaws Mahomes had only been playing quarterback for 5 years and he'd been a full-time football player for only one it wasn't even until his sophomore season following a talk with Texas Tech head coach Cliff kingsberry that he realize he would even have a chance to play in the NFL so that's when he finally quit baseball for good now Mahomes did did have Sloppy footwork that was obvious sometimes he drift backwards and throw off his back foot for no particular reason other times he would just Chuck up the ball for grabs like he was playing a children's game of 500 but you see the Smart Ones they knew that the backyard mechanics made his 65% completion percentage all the more impressive the 2017 NFL draft was set to begin April 27th in Philadelphia Mahomes had just 3 and a half months to prove himself and move up the draft boards so in January his agents Lee Steinberg and Chris cabin sent the quarterback to exos training facility in carlbad California where he began daily workouts with former NFL quarterback coach Mike Shepard the same Mike Shepard who had once recruited Andy Reid to BYU Shephard ran Mahomes through drills to refine his technique they covered so much ground that offseason that Shepard came to realize momes was more than a big arm he was smarter than anybody he knew see Mahomes had earned a 3.71 grade point average at Texas Tech and nobody knew it yet but Patrick Mahomes had a photographic memory his Agent Lee Steinberg remembered asking him does that mean you can remember every play you've ever played Mahomes responded Yes if NFL teams were concerned that Mahomes was a system quarterback specifically one from a simplified scheme that almost exclusively used a shotgun formation Steinberg believed that they just needed to see how his mind worked when Mahomes met with the Arizona Cardinals before the draft Cardinals head coach Bruce arens put his memory to the test on a board he drew up six plays and two or three pass prote schemes then he showed momes video of some Blitz packages and offered audible calls that would allow him to switch to protection depending on the look just 2 hours later Mahomes went out on the field and arens blurted out a protection and Blitz package righty righty Mahomes said fixing the protection holy cow Arian thoughts then he did it again Mahomes had already mastered something that might take another quarterback over a year Brett V's secret was starting to get out the Cardinals who had the 13th pick they started to like Mahomes so did Buffalo's owner ter Pula who sought to give his front office complete autonomy to make their own choice at number 10 the New Orleans Saints who picked one spot after the bills were thinking of a quarterback too and when Saints coach Shawn pton traveled to leic Texas he was taken by Mom's talent and his smile pton thought that this was the best quarterback he had ever evaluated the Chiefs meanwhile were picking 27th and still hadn't picked a quarterback in the first round since 1983 when they drafted Todd Blackledge seventh overall out of Penn State black ledge was famously a bust which stopped the Chiefs from Taking Chances on young QBs back in Kansas City however dorsy in the front office were starting to plot on January 17th V had run into mahomes's agent cabin at the NFL paa Collegiate bow and revealed a secret he loved momes the conversation started a daily back channel of texts and updates that lasted for another 3 months Steinberg and cabitt saw Kansas City as the ideal landing spot Steinberg had known Chief's owner Clark hunt since hunt was a ball boy Andy Reid was renowned for his work with quarterbacks the Chiefs had a good starter in Alex Smith but even mahomes's family believ he might benefit from a year of development on the bench and then there was a city Steinberg saw Kansas City as a scalable town for a kid from Tyler Texas it was a place where Mahomes might fit into the culture and actually connect with a fervent fan base Steinberg thought of the cliche Midwest nice it fit Patrick Mahomes Mahomes famously said that Kansas City is a city where you know the fan base loves football you want to be a part of a city that's just all in for you but you see if the chiefs were going to land him they couldn't wait till the 27th pick so a new question came into Focus what if the chiefs were to trade up with another team to get Patrick Mahomes so as the morning of the 2017 NFL draft approached Brett V headed off to work that same morning John dorsy was calling Doug wayy the general manager of the Buffalo Bills their communication had started months early around the NFL scouting combine and just days earlier they had agreed to the basics of a possible trade in which the Chiefs would package the 27th pick a third round pick and a first round pick in 2018 to move up to the bills spot at number 10 now the NFL draft can feel like an impenetrable Black Box teams will protect their Intel like diplomatic cables smoke screens are thrown everywhere dorsy for instance had invited the top five quarterback prospects to visit Kansas City before the draft this was just so Mahomes wouldn't stand out and he kept dropping the name of Alabama linebacker Ruben Foster into conversations with other Executives but this meant that nobody in the chief's front office could be certain how it would go see the Saints lurked at number 11 and dorsy was certain they wanted Mahomes the Cleveland Browns who are always in need of a quarterback had the first pick in the 12th nobody seemed to know anything about the Chicago Bears going to number three but if the Chiefs could move up to number 10 dorsy was only really worried about the Chargers at number seven who could stash Mahomes behind an aging Philip Rivers however there was one piece of NFL fine print working in the chief's favor NFL contracts for rookies contain a team option for a fifth season and it just so happened that the slotted money for the fifth year option fell substantially from the 10th pick to the 11th thus it made Financial sense for the Saints and the Cardinals who sit tight and not trade up so V thought the Chiefs could catch the entire league by surprise back in Texas Mahomes was still hopeful about Kansas City he had left his pre-draft meeting with the Bears convinced that they might take him and he had heard similar sentiments from other coaches but as the draft approached he had his agents deliver a message to the Chiefs front office using the inside info they had gathered from other teams if the Chiefs wanted to draft Mahomes they were going to need to move up to at least 12th the draft began as expected the Browns took defensive end miles Garrett but then a surprise came the Chicago Bears traded up one spot to take North Carolina quarterback Mitch trabis at number two which had astounded Executives across the league trabis isy had started just one season at North Carolina and the Bears had flattered Mahomes in their meeting Bears Jam Ryan Pace would say that the one difference was tris's perceived ability to process information which he compared to that of Saints quarterback Drew Brees the Chiefs finally had some excitement but they still had to worry about the Chargers at number seven that could throw a wrench into this entire plan they also still had a trade to finalize so when the Chargers opted to take Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams John dorsy went to work sorting through the trade details with wayy one more time the deal in principle was done and when the bills went on the clock at number 10 dorsy finally called back let's get it done he said wayy still wanted to wait on other offers before turning the trade into the league now inside the Chiefs room they could only wait one minute went by then two then three and finally wayy called back and it was done in the final moments before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the pick Andy Reid Rush red to call Alex Smith and Mahomes sat on a sofa at logo Delino in Philadelphia next to him was his mother and his agent nothing would ever be the same not for momes not for the Chiefs or the city of Kansas City at one point that night Mahomes got a text from Brett Vach it was a photo of a note Pat no matter what with the 10th pick in the 2017 NFL draft all right congratulations the Kansas City chief select Patrick Mahomes say second it's a great night great day enjoy it and uh we're fired up man my name is all Hill Colin and as we all know this turned out to be one of the greatest picks in NFL history and Patrick Mahomes has turned into one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history but it all started with the intuition of one man named Brett Fe thank you for watching and make sure you guys click subscribe because we have more stories coming out just like this every week we are providing you with the best inside stories of the NFL that you have never heard before so until next next week peace

Channel: Foul Play by All Hail

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Id: WTqBSV0GzXA

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2024