The next season, Mahomes noticed defenses were starting to play him differently. If he was going to beat them, it wasn’t going to be with go-balls to Tyreek Hill.
“We faced so many deep coverages where teams were taking away all our deep throws,” Mahomes said of the 2021 season during a Super Bowl LV media session. “I had to learn when to just take what’s underneath. That’s something where I’ve kind of grown and matured. We’ll call deep plays still all the time, but if defenses are going to play that deep, even though I want to in my heart of hearts to throw it downfield and make those big plays, I’ll take the underneath stuff and find ways to move the ball down the field that way.