KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- On any of dozens of plays from training camp, the preseason and his one regular-season start as a rookie, quarterback Patrick Mahomes showed the uncommon ability that led the Kansas City Chiefs to trade up in the first round to draft him last year.
Mahomes as their new starting quarterback may or may not be good enough to take the Chiefs beyond the divisional round of the playoffs, a place they couldn’t reach in five seasons with Alex Smith. They couldn’t get as far as the AFC Championship Game in the previous 19 seasons with a variety of other quarterbacks either, for that matter.