LNBS: Chiefs vs. Titans 2017 Wild Card with Mahomes as the Starter

[Chiefspants]

It's the offseason, I'm burning out with my workload at work (especially now that it's from my office at home) and am in full cabin fever due to the quarantine - but roll with me. In an alternate reality. Andy Reid stuns the football world by benching Alex Smith after watching Mahomes lead a game winning drive in the final game of the 2017 season. In this reality, where do the Chiefs end up in 2017?

Had the Chiefs won against the Titans their path would have been..

Divisional
@New England

AFCCG
@Jacksonville

Super Bowl
Philadelphia

For me, I think Mahomes obliterates the Titans and the Patriots. I think it would have been eerily like the beginning of the 2018 season where we saw teams roll out Cover 2 Zone Blitzes to counter Andy Reid and Alex Smith... and I think Mahomes leads the offense to a comfortable win over the Titans (securing an early 4th quarter touchdown to seal it). I think fans would have still questioned Alex's benching after the game - but I think the real coming out party would have been against the Patriots in Foxboro. Imagine the storylines, a rookie QB clowning Belicheck in Foxboro and the #1 seed Patriots. The NFL fandom would have lost their minds after that time, and rightfully so.

I think the Chiefs season would have ended in Jacksonville. Not due to Mahomes, but due to Bob Sutton and the toilet paper run defense. The JAX defense was nasty. Nasty enough to slow down Mahomes in the first half while Fourtnette gets pounded into our porous running D for 30+ carries. I think the Chiefs ultimately drop a heartbreaker similar to 2018's Championship Game. JAX loses to Philly in the Super Bowl in a blowout, but God, imagine how nuts this forum would have been after our first playoff home win in 24 years.

Here are my final predictions..

Wild Card
Titans 23
Chiefs 31

Divisional
Chiefs 42 (Mahomes 6 TD showing comes here rather than Pittsburgh)
Patriots 35

AFCCG
Chiefs 28
Jaguars 31

Am I wrong? Do the Chiefs go all the way with a rookie Mahomes that year? Does Alex still get traded for Fuller and a 3rd (eventually Nnadi) if Reid benches him before the playoffs? Does the rest of the AFCW freak the **** out and change their formula to counter Mahomes in the offseason? Would Andy have ever been able to bench Alex like Harbaugh did in SF? Does Mahomes throw 3 picks against the Titans at Arrowhead and cause Chiefsplanet to meltdown after a loss? If you want, I've included highlights from both Mahomes' first career start the week before the Titans game and "highlights" of our loss against the Titans. Discus.

2017 - Mahomes first career start and game winning drive @ Denver:

Spoiler!

2017 WC Highlights (if you can bear to watch them):

Spoiler!

[Mahomes_Is_God]

Our chances would have been much better, yes. That is without question. Also, bench Dee Ford in the 2018 AFCCG and there's a very decent possibilty we have 4 SB trophies right now. It's kind of depressing when you think of the possibilities.

[MAHOMO 4 LIFE!]

Eh no one knows how Mahomes would’ve been as a rookie. Smith helped Mahomes out a lot whether people want to believe it or not

[Mahomes_Is_God]

On the flipside, if we had won the 2019 SB we'd probably still have Bob, so maybe in that reality we never beat the 49ers or even get that far. Who the **** knows.

[suzzer99]

If Reid wasn't the nice guy he is, he would have benched Smith in the second half when the handwriting was on the wall.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!

Eh no one knows how Mahomes would’ve been as a rookie. Smith helped Mahomes out a lot whether people want to believe it or not

Not arguing that at all. Smith was instrumental to Mahomes' development. Both Patrick Mahomes Jr. and Sr. have talked about how incredible Alex was for both Mahomes' development and establishing Patrick in the locker room (something Mahomes Sr. would appreciate).

Still, by the end of his rookie year, Patrick Mahomes made Von Miller, Chris Harris Jr. and the Top 5 Denver defense look like absolute fools with the Chiefs B-team in Mile High a week before the Titans playoff game (so much so that Harris and Miller both said the Chiefs had a franchise QB before anyone else did). If there was any time during Mahomes rookie year that he was ready to take over - it was right then.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by Mahomes_Is_God

On the flipside, if we had won the 2019 SB we'd probably still have Bob, so maybe in that reality we never beat the 49ers or even get that far. Who the **** knows.

I wonder if Bob would have just rode off into the sunset either way.

The real crime was not firing Bob after the Colts meltdown.

I mean just having Spags has shown that ffs you can't be so predictable. If something isn't working, mix it up. Keep them guessing.

But then again if we fire Bob in 2014 who knows with the butterfly effect if we even get Mahomes.

[SPchief]

Refs would have never, ever, ever, ever, let a guy who at the time no one knows, walk into Foxboro in his 2rd start, beat Brady and Belicheck to go to the AFCCG. Hell, it wouldn't have needed the refs. Hell, Bellicheck wouldn't have needed the refs in this scenario.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by SPchief

Refs would have never, ever, ever, ever, let a guy who at the time no one knows, walk into Foxboro in his 2rd start, beat Brady and Belicheck to go to the AFCCG. Hell, it wouldn't have needed the refs. Hell, Bellicheck wouldn't have needed the refs in this scenario.

I don't know, man. If the Patriots rolled out their "Alex Smith" defense, I think it's a 2018 Chiefs vs. Steelers outcome. Mahomes would have scorched the Patriots Nick Foles style.

[Best22]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

I don't know, man. If the Patriots rolled out their "Alex Smith" defense, I think it's a 2018 Chiefs vs. Steelers outcome. Mahomes would have scorched the Patriots Nick Foles style.

2017 Pats defense was inferior to the 2018 version

But KC would have a difficult time stopping New England. Brady was the MVP that year. I think sack would lose a shootout, 28-42. Rookie Mahomes would put a scare in NE but I think your underestimating what late season Brady would do to the 2017 defense.

If we were lucky enough to get past NE, I don’t think Mahomes is outscoring the 2017 Jags in Florida. That Jacksonville offense with Fournette would run train on that defense. I don’t think Mahomes would win a shootout here, probably a 20-38 type loss

If we got past Jacksonville, Philly would dominate us. Foles may lay a 50 burger on us.

But I’m pretty sure the journey would end in Foxborough, and Mahomes would begin 2018 as a respected QB, which would in turn make the Steeler game more difficult

[Why Not?]

Pat’s loses to the Pats have never been because of Pat(say that 10x fast as you can, LOL). They’ve always been because of the defense, or lack there of. So, the real question is, was the 2017 Chiefs defense good enough to go win a playoff game at Nee England? I don’t think so.

[Kman34]

The last lesson from Alex was the “ how not to play in the playoffs “ lesson...
Everything turned out how it was supposed to....

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by Why Not?

Pat’s loses to the Pats have never been because of Pat(say that 10x fast as you can, LOL). They’ve always been because of the defense, or lack there of. So, the real question is, was the 2017 Chiefs defense good enough to go win a playoff game at Nee England? I don’t think so.

Patrick struggled in big games early, over hyped, even looked a little over hyped in the Super Bowl this year. That would have been amplified in Foxboro in 2017, and may have had a mental effect on the kid. I think fate lead us in this direction, and Mahomes is going to get even cooler and calmer going into these big games going forward. You can look back, but nothing would be the same going forward from that point. We are where we are and I couldn't be happier.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by MAHOMO 4 LIFE!

Eh no one knows how Mahomes would’ve been as a rookie. Smith helped Mahomes out a lot whether people want to believe it or not

So did Reid.
He was a raw recruit. He admitted recently that he didn't know how to read defenses until halfway through 2018. What happens if he didn't get that year with Smith/Reid to learn how NFL defenses try to camouflage their defenses? Read tendencies and post-snap tells, immediately know where he has a weakness to exploit. Remember this from film he saw in the week etc.


Without the shitty 2017 defense performance, we dont make a change at DC which was inevitable. Now. our defense doesn't hold Mahomes back from getting us multiple Super Bowl trophies.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief

Patrick struggled in big games early, over hyped, even looked a little over hyped in the Super Bowl this year. That would have been amplified in Foxboro in 2017, and may have had a mental effect on the kid. I think fate lead us in this direction, and Mahomes is going to get even cooler and calmer going into these big games going forward. You can look back, but nothing would be the same going forward from that point. We are where we are and I couldn't be happier.

Just watching his game in Foxboro last year in week 6 compared to Pat from this season although he had better stats last year he looks like a better QB in his second season under center, looks way more comfortable.