[MahomesMagic]

A QB so good that NFL PR teams have to drop articles like this...

The Bills were far, far closer than anyone realizes to drafting Patrick Mahomes.

When everyone else in the country was squeamish, this was who Pegula coveted as the face of his franchise. He brought Mahomes’ name up to anyone who’d listen. The rest of the world saw Mahomes as some swashbuckler who’d never be able to play this way in the pros. To Pegula, he was a star. Yet Pegula also did not want to meddle. He had placed this trust into McDermott — into the embryonic stage of “The Process” — so the Bills’ brass then decided to trade down from 10th overall to 27th to pick up a future first-rounder with hopes Mahomes would slide.

He did not.

He went to Kansas City and has since enjoyed a Jordan-like ascent with one MVP, one Super Bowl MVP and one whopping $503 Million Dollar Contract. Now, Mahomes is the single greatest obstacle between the Bills and their first Super Bowl in 60 years of existence because there’s zero question in KC: Mahomes is transcendent. Supernatural. Our brains have run out of adjectives.

As Monos recalls, Pegula would’ve drafted Mahomes right then and there in Indy if he could’ve.

Next came the cross-country trip in Pegula’s private jet.

First up? Kizer in South Bend, Ind., and the Bills only made this visit to throw other teams off. (His workout was, predictably, ugly.) Next was Trubisky in Chapel Hill, N.C. The weather was perfect. While it said a lot to the Bills about Trubisky’s character that four of his teammates showed up to run routes that morning when it appeared they were hung over from partying, Trubisky didn’t control the ball like they had hoped. Neither QB, to them, projected much alpha. Finally, it was on to Lubbock, Texas, to Mahomes on April 9-10 and, by God, was this trip a spectacle.

Mahomes was an alpha in every sense. He picked the steakhouse. He commanded the table.

He was fearless in every sense of the word.

“You wanted to stay with him all night,” Monos says. “It was awesome. … Mahomes was a guy who, ‘Let’s go get some wings and beer. Let’s go.’”

The next day — through driving 20 MPH winds— his workout was nothing short of phenomenal. With Pegula, Whaley, Monos, McDermott, then-OC Rick Dennison and then-QB coach David Culley all on site, Mahomes wasn’t stressed, nor nervous. He made every throw look easy. He carried himself with, as Monos puts, “If you want me, take me”-swag.

Adds Whaley, “The moment was not going to be too big for him. It was what he was born to be. The way he handled himself through the process, through the interviews, through the workout, it was like ‘Alright!’ This guy was a professional from Day 1. It didn’t faze him. It was ‘What do you want to do? OK. Let’s do it. You want me to do it better? You want me to do it this way? Whatever you want.’ You knew he had everything you wanted to be special.”

One week later, the Bills met with Deshaun Watson. Which went well. They liked him, too.

But Mahomes was the target. Part of Monos worried the Brett Favre-like gambling would break a lot of hearts, while Whaley worried about the Air Raid lineage and Mahomes going 5-7 his last season. McDermott? He made it clear he wanted to compete in Year 1 and his assistants flat-out did not want the quarterback. All in all, nobody in the entire building was standing on the table for Mahomes. Nobody that is, other than Pegula.

Nobody had “Top 10 conviction” on Mahomes, adds Monos, “other than Terry.”

So, the Bills charted a new battle plan. Their calculated gamble was that their reservations would be the entire league’s reservations and Mahomes would slip.

https://golongtd.substack.com/p/part...-on-josh-allen