Chiefs should immortalize Matt Nagy with Patrick Mahomes draft story

It was lucky enough for the Kansas City Chiefs that the NFL decided, for whatever reasons, to pass on Patrick Mahomes coming out of Texas Tech back in the 2017 NFL Draft. At the time, there were a lot of worries about his translatability to the NFL as a gunslinger and the fact that coming from the Texas Tech program, which was notorious for having high-volume college passers who didn’t translate to the NFL level well.

The Chiefs obviously had great interest in Mahomes, and even traded up (and paid a hefty price) to go up and get him in a draft class where we saw Myles Garrett go first overall to the Browns, Mitch Trubisky second overall to the Bears, and Solomon Thomas third overall to the 49ers. Plenty of teams have to be kicking themselves in hindsight for passing on Mahomes (or not paying the price to go up and get him) but it was perhaps meant to be from the start.

And by meant to be, I mean that former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy made sure Mahomes aced his pre-draft interview with Andy Reid.

Patrick Mahomes says Matt Nagy helped him ace pre-draft interview with Chiefs

To say that it was fate or destiny that Mahomes ended up in Kansas City certainly wouldn’t be hyperbolic. The Chiefs had Alex Smith at the time, and they played pretty good as a team with Smith at the helm, but they were looking for a game-changer at the position, and they took a big risk going after Mahomes, at least at the time. Mahomes says in this interview on Travis and Jason Kelce’s podcast that the night before his official “top 30” visit with the Chiefs and Andy Reid, he was given a bunch of plays that Reid was going to grill Mahomes on as his pre-draft “test”.

Nothing quite like knowing all of the answers to the test, right?

Mahomes aced the interview, of course, and by that point, he was motivated to be in Kansas City. So then he started feeding the Chiefs intel about how high up they were going to have to jump in the draft order to ensure getting him. He noted the Saints as a team that wanted him as well as “pick 12” as a target point, which at the time was owned by the Houston Texans (who selected Deshaun Watson).

There’s no reason to believe Mahomes is lying about any of this, which in turn means that Matt Nagy should probably be immortalized in Chiefs lore as the primary reason Mahomes ended up in Kansas City. He certainly did his part to make the decision easier for Andy Reid and the front office. Nagy, of course, would go on to become the head coach of the Chicago Bears for a few seasons before getting fired this past year.

Perhaps Mahomes revealing this information about Nagy — who is back with the Chiefs’ coaching staff in 2022 — will help the former Bears head coach get another opportunity at some point.