KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Before they picked him in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft, the Kansas City Chiefs found a lot to like about then-Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Among the factors in Mahomes' favor was how he dissected plays flawlessly on a whiteboard for coach Andy Reid and others on the offensive staff during his pre-draft visit to Kansas City.
Now, Mahomes revealed he had the answers to the test, so to speak. Speaking on the latest episode of the "New Heights" podcast hosted by teammate Travis Kelce and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce that premiered on Thursday, Mahomes said then-Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy tipped him to the plays Reid would ask him to go through.
Nagy is now the Chiefs' quarterback coach.
"Of course,'' Mahomes said, "I crushed the meeting.''
"If y'all let me go 12 or below I'm gonna get drafted by someone else"
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That year, the Chiefs invited other quarterbacks to Kansas City for pre-draft visits, including then-Clemson Tigers signal-caller Deshaun Watson. But that was more for show. They had a clear favorite in Mahomes.
"I think it was very safe to say that there was a major consensus in our building of who we liked,'' Nagy said Thursday. "You put the [Mahomes] tape on, you started watching and you can't put the clicker down and you just watched more and more and more.''
As for whether he tipped plays to Mahomes so he could ace the whiteboard test for Reid, Nagy said, "Maybe a little bit.''
"Patrick did a hell of a job on the test,'' he said. "The coach was giving him some good questions on the plays. And Patrick, he knew what he was doing. He was impressive.''
The Chiefs traded with the Buffalo Bills to go from the 27th spot to the 10th to draft Mahomes. John Dorsey, the Chiefs' general manager at the time, said afterward he felt 10 was the sweet spot for Mahomes since it put the Chiefs ahead of other interested teams, including the New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals.
Mahomes said after the draft he wasn't certain where he would be selected and thought it might be as late as the second or third round. But he said on the podcast he wanted to go to the Chiefs and told them other teams had said they were interested in drafting him in the first round as well.