Patrick Mahomes and his Kansas City Chiefs are preparing to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII in less than two weeks.
A hobbled Mahomes led Kansas City to a dramatic win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday. The team is now set to make its third Super Bowl appearance in four years with Mahomes etching his name in stone as one of the greats of all-time.
But it almost never was. Mahomes’ father appeared on The Parkins & Spiegel Show on 670 the Score Monday. Patrick Mahomes Sr. told a story surrounding his son leading up to the 2017 NFL Draft.
Apparently, the Chicago Bears had told Mahomes that he was their pick with the third selection in the annual event. Mahomes “wholeheartedly thought” that the Bears were selecting him and embraced that opportunity.
It wasn’t to be. Chicago traded up one spot with the San Francisco 49ers to No. 2 overall, selecting North Carolina product Mitchell Trubisky. Mahomes fell to the Chiefs at 10. The rest is history (almost literally).
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Just imagine how the directions of the three franchises mentioned above would have changed on a dime.
Mitchell Trubisky was an absolute bust during his four seasons with the Bears, throwing 64 touchdowns in 50 starts. He spent the 2021 campaign as Josh Allen’s backup with the Buffalo Bills before joining the Pittsburgh Steelers this past season. Trubisky was ultimately benched by rookie Kenny Pickett five games into the 2022 campaign.
As for Chicago, it finished with a league-worst 3-14 record this past season and will boast the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. One has to wonder if former general manager Ryan Pace would still be around in the Windy City had he not made an all-time blunder.
San Francisco selected defensive tackle Solomon Thomas with the second selection. The Stanford grad recorded all of six sacks in 30 career games with the 49ers.
The narrative surrounding San Francisco’s quarterback situation would have changed big time if the team thought higher of Patrick Mahomes. Instead, Brian Hoyer opened the Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch era as San Francisco’s starter before the team acquired Jimmy Garoppolo midway through the 2017 season.
Two years later, and they blew a 10-point lead to Mahomes and the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV. This past Sunday saw current 49ers starter Brock Purdy injured early in San Francisco’s blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. Oh, the humanity!
As the 207 NFL Draft played out, Kansas City had to make a decision between Mahomes and former Clemson star Deshaun Watson with the 10th pick. The team also had holdover Alex Smith on the roster after he led it to a 12-4 record in his fourth season with the Chiefs after being acquired from San Francisco. The irony is real with that one.
In the end, general manager Brett Veach made the decision to go with Mahomes over Watson. Fast forward less than six years, and Kansas City is Super Bowl bound once again.
All the while, Chicago remains a true launghingstock in the NFL and San Francisco just can’t overcome bad luck at quarterback.