Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I'll say the same thing about the drops that I said about them when people made excuses for Cassel and Smith.
I. Don't. Care.
EVERYONE has drops. Every QB in the league has drops and most of them have a roughly equivalent amount. Some have a few more, some a few less but in the end they come out in the wash.
A 55% completion percentage isn't terribly good. And yes, some were dropped, but Hill also made a one handed catch while spinning around into double (triple?) coverage on an underthrown ball and landed on his damn head. That play had little to do with Mahomes. The 2 'completions' on shovel passes? That shit evens out.
He needs to get that completion% up a bit if for no other reason than to give the defense more of a blow. They were pretty damn gassed out there because Mahomes missed a couple balls that could've extended drives. Not a ton, mind you, but a couple. And as a general rule I'll take his aggressiveness over a 70% completion%.
But if he needs to take one or two fewer kamikazee strikes down the field to get that rate up to 60% or so, he probably should. That's kinda a bright red line to me - he needs to stay above that or he's not playing complementary football. It's exciting football, but he'd be doing a pretty major disservice to his defense. 70% means you're probably being a chickenshit. 50-55% means you're putting a lot of pressure on your defense and this defense ain't gonna stand up to that.
60ish% and a good YPA means you're pressing downfield when it's there, keeping defenses honest and keeping drives alive. And when he gets to be truly elite; peak Mahomes (he's nowhere near that yet), he may be able to challenge that 70% without a hiccup and without dialing down aggression. Right now he's not quite there (the throw to Kelce that he rifled for no real reason in the end zone being one of those examples). There's room to improve here and I am confident he will.
And yes, that 60% will be inclusive of drops because drops happen, gents. Just accept that and move along.
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Great post and point. I think a lot of the incompletions came from lack of touch, or too much velocity. I count that up to nerves for now. He will get to know his teammates better and adjust accordingly.
If what we have heard about his self-evaluation/correction is true, we may see significant improvement in this area sooner rather than later.