Patrick Mahomes has had a lot of special moments since the Chiefs took him in the first round of the 2017 draft and during his six years as the starting quarterback: Two MVP awards, six Pro Bowls, three Super Bowls and Super Bowl MVPs. The list goes on.
But Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said he knew the team had something incredible before Mahomes even started a regular-season game.
Hunt revealed to Kevin Clark on ESPN's This Is Football podcast this week that general manager Brett Veach would send Hunt videos of Mahomes throwing no-look passes during practice in 2017 when Mahomes was the rookie backup to Alex Smith. Hunt asked Veach how a no-look pass could exist in football because he'd only seen it in basketball.
"[Veach] was like, 'Yeah it does. Watch the clip,'" Veach said. "And sure enough in practice, [Mahomes would] be looking this way and throwing that way. And of course, when he started playing the next season, that's exactly what we saw from him."
I asked Clark Hunt the first time he knew @PatrickMahomes was special.
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) April 1, 2024
In 2017, Brett Veach was sending Hunt practice clips of "no-look passes". Hunt called Veach to get him to explain, he didn't understand the term. Veach told him to watch the clips, he was being literal. pic.twitter.com/xWy68vjkp4
Mahomes famously brought those no-look passes to the field. Not just once, but several times during the past six years. His heroics were even the subject of a five-minute feature by ESPN on Sunday NFL Countdown in 2020 that featured former NBA star and no-look pass aficionado, Jason Williams.
Other quarterbacks besides Mahomes have attempted the no-look pass, too. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford did it a couple times as well — both for Los Angeles and the Lions — including a pivotal pass to wideout Cooper Kupp in Super Bowl LVI. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson threw one as well in 2023.
Mahomes' wild throws aren't why he's the best quarterback in the league, but his willingness to try things out of ordinary have certainly helped him. Head coach Andy Reid is another, as his mastery of offensive game-planning gave Mahomes a leg-up schematically. Where Mahomes takes over is his innate ability to almost will the ball to his receivers and put the Chiefs in position to score seemingly on every drive.
And while Hunt and the Chiefs may have known Mahomes was special from the onset of his career back in 2017, few could have predicted Mahomes would become potentially the greatest quarterback of all-time.
