Patrick Mahomes and the evolving NFL draft quarterback evaluation
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Patrick Mahomes’ tape in the lead-up to the 2017 NFL draft was scary. It was littered with off-balance passes, sidearm deliveries, leaning throws, backward drifts and lots of improvisation. His footwork was frantic; he didn’t consistently step through to his target; and he looked more like shortstop hurling a baseball across the diamond on the move than a potential first-round franchise quarterback.
You can typically tell when a ball is going to be a completion just by watching what happens before it leaves the quarterback’s hand. And so much of Mahomes’ tape from his Texas Tech days featured the mechanics you’d usually see on an incompletion. But here’s the thing: He was still consistently completing these passes. I’ve been scouting quarterbacks for the NFL draft since 1999, and I’ve never seen such tremendous results on a consistent basis for a quarterback with such messy mechanics. And I can confidently say I’ve never had a more difficult QB evaluation than Mahomes’ 2017 scouting report because of that vast difference.
Mahomes’ evaluation, and his greatness in spite of the mechanics, still carries significance for me today. Why? Because it fundamentally changed the way I scout quarterbacks for the draft.
If you’ve been watching the NFL for the past four years — or if you just happened to tune in Sunday night for the Kansas City Chiefs’ wild overtime win versus the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the playoffs — you know not much has changed with Mahomes. He is among the league’s best quarterbacks despite the fact we rarely see him throw with the kind of mechanics traditionally thought to bring pro success. He makes incredible throws that just don’t seem possible, and he does it all the time. Mahomes has proved to me that the result is ultimately what matters, regardless of whether the prototypical quarterback mechanics are there.
Mahomes’ 2017 tape
Until Mahomes came along, I’d say about 90% of what I was looking for on a QB’s tape was what…
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Source : espn
