Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has become the best quarterback in the NFL, a sure-fire (if he plays enough seasons) Hall of Famer, and potentially one of the greatest of all time. Not everyone saw that potential at first blush.
Receiver Tyreek Hill, appearing on Showtime’s Inside the NFL, made it clear that he’s one of the ones who didn’t immediately believe.
“I thought he was trash,” Hill said, “I ain’t gonna cap. I ain’t gonna cap. I ain’t even gonna cap, man. When he first got there I was like, this is who y’all drafted right here? This is who y’all drafted? Hey but look, he proved me into a whole complete, I don’t know. That second year, like his quarterback mechanics were different. It was like he was spending more time with his quarterback coach, spending more time with Coach Reid, like learning the offense. Dude was like different.”
Hills may not be alone in his assessment, but his words simply don’t mesh with things said during Mahomes’ rookie season by tight end Travis Kelce.
“[W]hat Mahomes does in practice is just unbelievable,” Kelce said on PFT Live in October 2017. “I mean what kind of behind-the-scenes stuff that you guys haven’t seen on Sundays is Mahomes is getting better, getting more fluent, getting more comfortable just being a professional athlete and understanding the scheme and the timing, how long the seasons are, stuff like that. He’s gauging all this stuff and I think when he gets on the field eventually knowing that he is going to get the keys to the car eventually, everyone knows that, and when he does I can’t wait to see just how good he is.”
It apparently took longer than that for Hill to come around, but eventually he did. Because it quickly became obvious to anyone that Mahomes is anything but “trash.”