Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs staying busy, adding ‘wrinkles’ during bye week

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By Nate Taylor Jan 5, 2021

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes’ third trip to the postseason as a starter is already different from his previous two.

Mahomes, the Chiefs’ superstar quarterback, acknowledged Monday that the newest experience in his four-year career will be having at least a 20-day break before commanding the Chiefs’ potent offense during the team’s divisional playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium. Sure, it’s true that Mahomes has never had to play in the NFL’s wild-card playoff round. But with the added rest this season, he believes his body will be in peak condition when the Chiefs begin their much-anticipated playoff run, the next step in their “Run It Back” campaign to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Such was not the case in 2018, when he noticed the cumulative impact of being a first-time starter. Last season, Mahomes was more prepared for the demands of playing in the intense-filled postseason, but he was still aware that he returned from a dislocated right kneecap just a few months earlier.

This time, Mahomes expects the physical and mental break from the bye week to rejuvenate him and his teammates to perform their best and advance to their third consecutive AFC Championship Game.

“We had some battles there at the end of the (regular) season,” Mahomes said Monday. “Games like the Saints, the Bucs — and even the Falcons — were physical games. For us to be able to get back healthy, get everybody back to 100 percent, I think we’ll be able to utilize our speed and our power and really have the best Kansas City Chiefs team that you’ve seen since kind of the beginning of the year.”
Coach Andy Reid was able to successfully rest 20 of the Chiefs’ most prominent players Sunday in the regular season finale against the Los Angeles Chargers, who beat Kansas City, 38-21. The team’s practices last week allowed Mahomes to tinker and experiment — which he did during training camp and during his rookie season as the backup — while 13-year veteran Chad Henne took most of the repetitions. Mahomes put most of his ideas on the whiteboards inside the training facility, which surprised Reid and the assistant coaches.

“I drew up, like, 25 plays,” Mahomes said, smiling. “I was just sitting there, drawing up plays forever. Hopefully I can get a few of them in and we can have a few touchdowns in the postseason.”

The Chiefs’ offense, of course, is known for its innovative creativity. Reid often develops a few misdirection plays during the regular season that are not revealed until a critical moment in the postseason, the most notable being the “Shift to Rose Bowl Right Parade” play in the Chiefs’ victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl. An educated observer could say that a few of the plays that Mahomes designed since his last game, a win over the Falcons on Dec. 27, are likely to be featured in the red zone.
In the victory over the Panthers, Mahomes executed one of his designed misdirection plays — “Ferrari Right,” a nod to his nickname from ESPN color analyst Louis Riddick — to perfection. Mahomes started the play by motioning to the right before running to the left and catching the snap from center Austin Reiter on what appeared to be a rollout to the left of the formation. But Mahomes spun back to the right and threw a quick 1-yard touchdown pass to receiver Demarcus Robinson in the back of the end zone.

Another play from Mahomes’ mind was supposed to lead him catching a 1-yard touchdown pass from star tight end Travis Kelce. Once again, Mahomes did his pre-snap motion before receiving the ball from Reiter. Mahomes then gave the ball to star receiver Tyreek Hill to give the Bucs the impression the Chiefs were running a traditional reverse play. But Hill gave the ball to Kelce on a double-reverse, who was to execute the short pass to Mahomes. Kelce, though, hesitated to throw the ball to an open Mahomes, which led to the pass being deflected by cornerback Carlton Davis.

Mahomes didn’t reveal any specifics of his newest plays, but Reid acknowledged that the Chiefs’ offense is expected to run the most advanced concepts within the immense playbook.
“Your base set of plays are relatively the same, but you always have a few little extra wrinkles in there,” Reid said. “You take the base fundamentals of the offense and then you work around that. You can work in some things that maybe you worked on in camp that you’ve just kind of put aside.”

The Chiefs will return to their facility Thursday, when players will focus on maintaining their conditioning prior to practicing their game plan next week for their upcoming opponent. Reid said Sunday that Joe Bleymaier, the team’s pass game analyst, is building advanced scouting reports on each team’s defense before this weekend’s games. Terry Bradden and Alex Whittingham, the team’s defensive quality control assistants, are tasked with the scouting reports on each team’s offense.

Tyrann Mathieu, the star strong safety, plans to watch all three AFC playoff games to help prepare himself for the challenges the Chiefs’ defense will encounter. Throughout the past week, Mathieu has been scouting himself and the rest of the unit, watching film of their play this season in an effort to improve techniques and pre-snap communication. Following Sunday’s game, Mathieu sent text messages to his defensive teammates. As one of the Chiefs’ leaders, Mathieu wanted to motivate his fellow players, suggesting that every practice repetition next week will have great value.
“Trying to find ways that I can get better and create an impact in a game, giving those guys nuggets,” Mathieu said. “That’s really what I’ve been doing that’s extra, trying to find any way that we can get better and really create some momentum going into the postseason.”

Similar to Mathieu, Mahomes has thought about the entire offense and how that unit can exceed expectations in the divisional round game, especially after the Chiefs’ starters scored a season-low 17 points against the Falcons. Mahomes has done more workout sessions the past few days than he would during the week leading up to a game. Kelce and Hill ran routes and caught passes from Mahomes on Sunday during the Chiefs’ pregame drills. And Mahomes has thought about the Chiefs’ offensive line.
In front of Mahomes this season, during his 15 starts, were six different offensive line combinations. Injuries, of course, have played a major role. Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz hasn’t played since the middle of October because of a back injury. Left Tackle Eric Fisher and backup right tackle Mike Remmers have played through their own back injuries, while Reiter has been bothered by a sore knee. Mahomes has faith his linemen will play better after their rest to execute their challenging duties, such as the tackles often being in one-on-one matchups against edge pass rushers and the entire group pass protecting longer than the usual for the Chiefs to complete deep passes. Proper discipline with dropbacks and correct protection calls against the blitz, Mahomes said, should lead to him facing less pressure. In his previous three starts, Mahomes was hit a combined 16 times, the most in a three-game stretch this season.

“We ask them to do a lot of different things that not a lot of teams do,” Mahomes said of his linemen. “It usually helps us out a ton. Having a game like the Falcons game, it teaches us that we need to make sure that we’re clear and definitive with what we’re calling and what we’re trying to ask them to do to put them in position to succeed.”

The idea the rested Chiefs could start their divisional round game rusty is a concern, but just a small one for Reid, who expressed trust in his veterans. Last season, the Chiefs became the first champion to rally to win each postseason game after trailing by 10 or more points. Their greatest feat was responding from a 24-0 deficit against the Texans — in the divisional round — by scoring a touchdown on seven consecutive drives.

Reid thinks the Chiefs’ path toward another championship will be harder than it was a year ago. He urged his players Monday to utilize their bye week to aid in elevating their performance. But he reminded the Chiefs they can’t become too emotional.
“You have to be able to take it up another notch without getting so tied into that that you can’t completely function,” Reid said. “Sometimes you can try so hard that everything goes the opposite way.”

Mahomes’ response to Reid’s words was to reference the Chiefs’ positive results this season against playoff teams. The Chiefs won all four games and were victorious by an average margin of 7.2 points. Improved health from rest, new offensive plays to unleash and studious defense has Mahomes confident the Chiefs can have their best performance of the season next weekend.

“If you watched us throughout the season, it feels like we always raised up and played better in the big games,” Mahomes said. “Knowing that the next (potential) three are going to be big games, I know I’m going to get the best effort out of every single guy on this team and we’re going to raise our game to be even better. I’m excited for it because I know what this team can do. It can be a special run.”

The rest of the article, with the vids on the Athletic here:
https://theathletic.com/2304679/2021...rce=dailyemail