You’d think there isn’t all that much you can learn from a 20-minute throwing session with the reigning league MVP at quarterback, but that wasn’t the Boston College WR Zay Flowers.
The wideout had thought his pre-draft process was over and that he’d be able to relax leading into his travel to Kansas City for the 2023 NFL draft. All of a sudden, his phone buzzed with a message from an unfamiliar number.
“I actually just got a text out of nowhere and I’m looking down at my phone like, ‘Patrick Mahomes just texted me? That’s crazy,'” Flowers told media members at the NFL Play Football event at Central High School on Wednesday. “He was like, ‘We’re working out.’ We just worked together and there were a couple of (other) guys out there. A couple of pro quarterbacks and a couple of receivers too.”
After the amazement wore off, Flowers said he simply went out there and took advantage of the opportunity. He didn’t try to make an impression, he just took in what was a rare experience for a draft prospect.
In working with Mahomes, he learned a lot about the Chiefs’ star quarterback and what to expect from the NFL game.
“Wherever he says that he’s going to put that ball, the ball is going to be there,” Flowers said of Mahomes. “If he said he’s going to put the ball in the back of your head, you better turn around because the ball is going to be in the back of your head. Just catching the ball is so easy because you know where it’s going to be. It’s going to be in the same spot every time so you can just turn around and make a play.”
As for the advice he received from those pro receivers and quarterbacks in attendance, they told him to stay true to himself in the NFL.
“They just tell me to be who I am,” Flowers said. “Everybody has got their own game. Everybody has got their own style. You don’t have to be like nobody else — and just take care of your body.”
Even after the throwing session in Texas was over, Mahomes left the line of communication with Flowers open.
“He just told me if I need anything about this process to just text him and we can just chop it up if I need it,” Flowers said of Mahomes. “I was looking through my phone, I was like, ‘I’m really like texting with Patrick Mahomes.’ I used to watch him when he had Tyreek Hill. I like Tyreek Hill, a lot, so just watching him and thinking, ‘What if I got to work with him?”
Flowers admittedly had some preconceived notions about what Mahomes would be like and what it would be like to work alongside him. He doesn’t get a choice in the matter, but Flowers says that it’d feel great if he were drafted by Kansas City and got to continue working with Mahomes. Even when he was prompted about the one quarterback he’d want to play with in the NFL, he didn’t hesitate to give his answer.
“Pat Mahomes,” Flowers said. “Even if I didn’t just workout with him, Pat Mahomes.”
