Patrick Mahomes has surprising role with Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is one of the best players in football and one of the best of his generation. We learned this week that he has a surprising role with the Chiefs if he ever needs to be called upon to do it.

Mahomes, it turns out, is also the Chiefs' backup punter and the team is more than willing to let him do it.

There is a possibility that he could be needed as soon as this week against the Los Angeles Chargers. 

The Chiefs' regular punter, Tommy Townsend, was listed as questionable for last week's game against Denver and is again on the injury report this week because of a knee injury.

Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub said this week that not only is Mahomes the team's backup punter, but he is always demonstrating how good he is at it in practice. 

"That guy, it's unbelievable," said Toub via ESPN.

In some ways, it is actually not that unbelievable because players who are as skilled and athletic as Mahomes tend to be able to do pretty much anything on the football field. A lot of these guys probably grew up punting and kicking all throughout high school (or playing both sides of the ball). When they get to college, they obviously give up the other aspects of the game and focus on their primary position. 

It would still be interesting to see Mahomes line up to punt, not only to see what he could do with it in a live game, but also for the fake punt possibilities it would create for the Chiefs. Imagine an opponent getting a big stop on third down, breathing a sigh of relief that they are going to get the ball back, and then watching Mahomes stay on the field and line up in a punt formation. You would almost have to leave your defense on the field and guard against a fake because anything could be on the table at that point.

The Chiefs play the Chargers on Sunday. Townsend has been a full participant all week in practice but remains listed on the injury report with his knee injury.