KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs jumped into the market for a quarterback, sending two No. 1 draft choices and a third-round pick to draft Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The Kansas City Chiefs selected Texas Tech quarterback Pat Mahomes with the No. 10 pick in the 2017 NFL draft.
Coach Andy Reid praised Mahomes for his intelligence and believes he fits in well both with the team’s offensive philosophy and the personality of the Kansas City locker room.
“He’s definitely not a finished product right now, but he has tremendous upside,” Reid said. “We think he’ll fit into this offense very well.”
Mahomes passed for 5,052 yards last season, along with 41 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He ran an Air Raid offense at Texas Tech, which utilizes pass early and often philosophy with a hurry-up look. Mahomes averaged 49.25 passes per game last season.
Reid compared coming to Kansas City to Mahomes learning a new language. But the coach believes the gunslinger can put his stamp on it just as Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb and Alex Smith before him.
“You get him and give him the rules of the offense, and then you expect them to put their personality to it,” Reid explained. “They’re all different. You look at all the guys who have played in this system, and they’ve all kind of put their mark on it, the good ones.
“He’ll eventually do that. Not there yet, but he’ll eventually do that.”
The Chiefs sent their first pick this year, the No. 27 pick overall, along with the No. 91 pick overall in this year’s third round along with their first-round pick in the 2018 draft.
The team entered the draft with 10 picks overall. The team still holds eight more picks in this year’s draft, including a second and third round pick on Friday along with a fourth-round pick, two fifth-round selections, two sixth-round picks and a seventh-round selection on Saturday.
Mahomes becomes the first quarterback selected in the first round since 1983 when the team selected Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge with the No. 7 pick.
Reid said he appreciated the aggressiveness of general manager John Dorsey to make a move to grab Mahomes.
“When he sees a good player that he likes, he’s going to attack it and go get him,” Reid said. “That’s what he felt about Patrick, and I thought he did a great job with it.
Chiefs chairman/CEO Clark Hunt telegraphed earlier in the evening the team may be in the market to make a move in this year’s draft.
“You never know each year, but it is a very deep draft,” Hunt said. “I’ve heard people speculate that it may lead to more trades. That certainly could be the case. Hopefully, if there’s any trading, it will benefit the Kansas City Chiefs.”
Hunt indicated a willingness to be aggressive in moving in the draft if the opportunity arose.
“There will be a great player there for us at pick 27 if we stay there,” he said. “If not, maybe we’ll move up or we’ll move back like we did last year when we picked a great player in the second round.”
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Matt Derrick is the lead beat writer for ChiefsDigest.com. Use the contact page to reach him or find him on Twitter: @MattDerrick.
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