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Few will dispute that Patrick Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks today and could very well be on the shortlist for the greatest of all time. However, not even his incomparable talent is enough to avoid the evil that has plagued his team this season: the drops.
The evidence is overwhelming, especially after Monday night's game against the Philadelphia Eagles. With 1:50 minutes on the clock, the Kansas City Chiefs were fighting to turn the score around, which was 17-21 against them at the moment.
Six-year veteran Marquez Valdez-Scantling took off on a post route through the middle of the field and easily beat cornerback Josiah Scott.
With the man uncovered and tight end Travis Kelce locked in triple coverage, Mahomes decided to go for the long pass. It was a perfect rainbow that flew over the defender and fell into the hands of Valdez-Scantling, who dropped it.
The pigskin bounced off the receiver's hands and sealed the defeat of his team, which now has a record of seven wins and three losses.
Mahomes could very well use some help
Valdez-Scantling's mistake is far from the only one in this sense. Just in that same game, Kelce also had a fumble, and Justin Watson dropped a speeding bullet from Mahomes that hit him right between the numbers.
The talent of the Chiefs' signal-caller is undoubted, but the analysts are more than eloquent: Mahomes cannot throw passes and catch them himself.
The statistics support the assertion: this season, Chiefs receivers have dropped 26 passes, and the five they dropped in the duel against the Eagles is the highest so far this season, three of them in that final series, one from Kelce.
Patrick refuses to point fingers
"I could've probably thrown it a little bit shorter," Mahomes declared after the Valdez-Scantling miss, "He was that open." However, he also assured, "I have no regrets. They trip-teamed Travis, so I went to the guy that won downfield. We just didn't come away with the ball."
No one could blame Mahomes for pointing out his receiver's failure; instead, he decided to accept his responsibility. Contrary to Valdez-Scantling himself, who preferred to distance himself from the media, just as he did from Josiah Scott.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has a reputation for making the right adjustments at the right time. On the field and in the locker room, Reid has a tough job ahead of him if he doesn't want their coveted postseason ticket to slip away.