The Kansas City Chiefs have a perfect record through eight weeks, but the 2024 NFL season hasn’t been perfect for Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. Not only have they lost key players to injuries, but the offense hasn’t been performing as they’d like to.
Mahomes’ stats this year are raising many eyebrows, as the quarterback has more interceptions (9) than touchdowns (8) after seven games. A strong running game and a powerful defense has allowed the Chiefs to hide their passing game problems, but the numbers are exposing the 2x NFL MVP.
Fortunately, his coach doesn’t pay attention to this. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Reid let everyone know that he’s absolutely satisfied with the way Mahomes has been playing in the 2024 NFL season.
“Again, he’s been playing great football,” Reid said, via Sports Illustrated. “You look back a couple years ago and teams would show you shell coverage and you had to kind of get used to that whole deal. Now he just sees it, handles it, gets it to his guys, gets the ball out of his hands. He’s a great player, and he manages everything there. It’s like having a coach on the field.”
We’re talking about one of the greatest coach-quarterback duos the NFL has ever seen, so Reid’s comments are not surprising at all. Regardless of what the stats suggest or what the rest of the NFL says, the Chiefs coach knows what Mahomes brings to the team.
Patrick Mahomes accepting to change to help the Chiefs win
While the stats don’t look great for Mahomes in the 2024 NFL season, the truth is that these numbers by themselves don’t show that the quarterback has actually been throwing shorter passes.
At the end of the day, the rest of the league learned the hard way that allowing Mahomes to throw deep passes is not worth the risk. In the meantime, the 29-year-old had to adjust to this challenge.
“I think when I was younger, I wanted to throw it deep every time,” Mahomes said. “There’s good and bad to that. I think more than anything, it’s just finding that right balance of still pushing it down the field — but at the same time, taking what’s there and moving the chains.”