After Patrick Mahomes’ Deep Ball Offense Embarrassed Andy Reid, Chiefs HC ‘Punching’ Captain QB for Defying Instructions

With the absence of Tyreek Hill and a debacle-laden season last year, Patrick Mahomes has become out of touch with his deep passing skills. Relying heavily on defense, Travis Kelce, and Rashee Rice last year, Mahomes is long overdue to upgrade his offense, and that’s what Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo are trying to help the 3x Super Bowl champion with.

It seems like Andy Reid is taking shots at Mahomes for not living up to his expectations. The Kansas City Chiefs QB appeared in a presser and talked about what he’s dealing with in the training camp. The addition of players like Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown helps, but only on one condition that Mahomes upgrades his offense and so far, training has been disappointing.

“And I think it’s just being able to, all right, we’ll just get the ball in my hand, get it to the check down or wherever that is, and then live to play another play. And I think that’s just something I’ve felt more comfortable with,” said Patrick Mahomes via Sports Radio 810 WHB

He further explained, “And then I think it’s been cool that we’ve been trying, like getting back to my old days. He’s forcing me to push the ball down the field. If I don’t, he throws little jabs at me, like you want to throw the check down here? And I’m just like, I got you, coach, we’re going to push it.”

Pro Football Focus recently did a study on 10 quarterbacks who made the most impact in the league last year. The quarterbacks were ranked based on their short-passing (minimum 200 reps) and intermediate passing (minimum 50 reps) and the results were nothing short of astonishing. In both those criteria, Patrick Mahomes doesn’t come close to being first.

Why did Andy Reid take a jab at Patrick Mahomes?

Pro Football Focus’ analysis considers short passing (under 10 yards), intermediate passing (10-19 yards), and deep ball passing (20 yards or more). Mahomes ranks fifth in short passing with a grade of 81.1 over 2,447 yards. He’s behind Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, and even Kirk Cousins. However, he does slightly better in intermediate passing.

When it came to throwing passes in the ballpark of 10-19 yards, Mahomes ranks 3 with a passing grade of 92.3 over 1,266 yards in a minimum of 50 attempts. He’s behind Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts in this criterion and beats his short-passing rivals like Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, and Kirk Cousins, to name a few. But perhaps the most surprising of them all or his deep passing stats, that’s what all the fuss is about.

Mahomes doesn’t even rank in the top 10 when it comes to deep passing. He’s the second lowest-rated passer with a passing grade of 71.9 and surprisingly, Baker Mayfield is the only one doing worse than him. He had an abysmally low conversion rate, completing 20 of his 71 throws over 695 yards with one TD and 8 interceptions. A bad TD-INT ratio on deep balls.

But that’s nothing. The study also unfolds Mahomes’ turnover-worthy plays (10) with the highest turnover-worthy play rate of 13.9% of the 24 QBs selected for the study. It’s just an assumption, but Mahomes might have been out of touch with slinging deep balls since the absence of Tyreek Hill. Also, he might have stopped doing that because Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kadarius Toney didn’t really do justice to his deep lobs last year.

But things are different this year as he has one of the most nimble and agile receivers in Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown. Can he regain his confidence? What do you think?