It's not how you start. It's how you finish — right? Those may be words to live by for Kansas City Chiefs rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
During today's press conference, Head Coach Andy Reid announced when each quarterback would play, in the order of the depth chart, in the team's first preseason game against San Francisco at Arrowhead Stadium. Alex Smith starts and only plays in the first quarter. Tyler Bray plays the second quarter. Patrick Mahomes plays in the third quarter followed by Joel Stave.
"That is how we are rolling right now and then the rest of the guys just kind of follow," said Reid.
While it's not the final depth chart before their season opener at the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, airing on 41 Action News, the first one is a litmus test on how players are performing. Maybe it's not all that surprising that Bray is ahead of Mahomes after two weeks at training camp. After all, Bray knows the system and Mahomes is still learning it.
"[Tyler] did some good stuff. He had a couple of nice throws and he is getting better every day," Reid said. "The experience I think is important for both of the two, really three of the young guys."
Chiefs Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy also agrees that Tyler Bray has been a bright spot.
"I'm happy for Tyler and the effort that he's given us, the patience that he's had," Nagy said. "He's really improved as a player. He knows he has a long way to go. But right now, we're just taking it day-by-day and he's doing a good job."
The positioning may be two-fold as well; Bray's good play and Mahomes' mistakes on the field. And while mistakes on the field during training camp are one thing, the coaching staff is trying to limit those mistakes so they don't translate into a preseason or regular season game.
"I think it's important that the quarterbacks use this time to understand especially a new quarterback that hasn't gone through," Reid said. "This will be [Patrick's] first time to go through it and to see what you can get away with on the offense. So, the interceptions, I get it. I wanna test the waters now. So, he gets to learn the parameters of this offense and what you can get away with in each route."
Most know Patrick has a strong arm which is his upside. Even Coach Nagy remarked that when asking Patrick why he made a particular throw, Mahomes' response was 'cause I can.' However, Patrick knows that he has be smart with how he throws the ball.
"There's definitely been some learning curves I've had to make," Mahomes said. "There's some tight window throws I can make. And, there's some that I can't. And, you can see that some of them will be touchdowns. And, some will be interceptions. And, learn when you can take those chances and when you have to kind of pull back and take the check and live to fight another day."
