Mahomes Explains How Kingsbury Shaped Him at Texas Tech

But their history dates to the time Clark Hunt was finalizing the contract of Andy Reid as his next head coach. That was when Kingsbury – now the Commanders’ offensive coordinator -- was working on his next quarterback at Texas Tech.

And while most college head coaches were trying to find quarterbacks to fit their offenses, Kingsbury was willing to build an offense around a unique quarterback.

“You kind of hear that undertone of that talking of, ‘You can't play that way,’” Patrick Mahomes recalled of his recruiting process. “And Coach Kingsbury never, ever forced me to be just a pocket passer, or hold the ball a certain way. He just let me be me.

“He would obviously help with my footwork and stuff like that, and going through progressions, but he would just let me play. When it came to playing, he's like, ‘Once you get to the game, you got to go out there and just play your game.’”

The 2017 draft

Fast forward a few years and Matt Nagy noticed. Entering his second season as Chiefs offensive coordinator, Nagy saw something unique in the film of the Texas Tech passer. And before Kansas City traded up to take him in 10th overall in 2017, Nagy loved what he saw.

“Really, really good stuff,” Nagy remembered Friday. “I think that when you go back and you look at the amount of time that we invested in looking at Pat, you automatically right away go to who his coach is and what he did with him. And I have so much respect for Kliff Kingsbury as a person, as a coach, what he's done at the college level, professionally in the NFL.”

Mahomes sat most of the season as a rookie, starting the season finale after a year of mentoring behind Alex Smith. But the youngster noticed something similar about the way Nagy and Andy Reid coached him.

“When I got here,” Mahomes said, “they wanted to keep refining and refining, but at the same time, they wanted me to go out there and just play the game the way that got me here. And so, I've been blessed, because you can go into some situations, and I've seen quarterbacks in other situations, that their game gets kind of boxed in, and they don't get to be the best version of themselves.”

The best version of Mahomes showed up quickly. In his first season as Kansas City’s full-time starter, he led the league with 50 touchdowns, guided the Chiefs to the AFC championship game and captured his first MVP.

First of five Super Bowl appearances

A year later, he was Super Bowl MVP in leading the Chiefs to their first league title in 50 years. It all started with the way Kingsbury recruited him.

“Really,” Nagy said, “he used his strengths and just gave him confidence to be able to just be himself, is what I saw the most. Just go cut it loose. And it's okay if you make a mistake; we'll reel it in a little bit. So, he's doing that now with his quarterback in Washington, and I think that that's a credit to Kliff.”