There has been perhaps no better draft pick in the NFL since the Kansas City Chiefs took Patrick Mahomes 10th overall in 2017, and the superstar quarterback has revealed the strings he pulled to make sure he ended up at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Super Bowl LIV champion has made for a perfect fit with head coach Andy Reid, creating one of the most explosive offences the NFL has ever seen.
Speaking to teammate Travis Kelce on his New Heights podcast, Mahomes revealed the hidden role Matt Nagy, who went on to become Chicago Bears head coach, played in him being drafted by the Chiefs. Mahomes also shared that he told the Chiefs they would have to draft him in the top 12 otherwise he had been told by other teams he would be snapped up.
The Chiefs traded up to 10 and the rest is history, taking him ahead of Deshaun Watson, but Mahomes could have taken a very different path if things went slightly differently.
"The first day that I met coach Reid was at the facility," Mahomes said. "We had meetings and I was in there for five hours. He's just going through plays and Matt Nagy, who was the offensive coordinator then, really liked me so he gave me the plays they were going to go over the night before.
"So of course, I crushed the meeting. I stayed up all night studying those plays.
"As the process went on I got the feeling that I was going up in the draft. I had a couple of teams that said they would draft me and that's true. It's not like they are making that up.
"I talked to them during the draft process and they were like 'Hey, if you're there, we're going to take you'.
"I kind of gave a little inside info to the Chiefs. I was like 'Hey, if y'all let me go 12 or below, I'm going to get drafted by someone else. I gave them a little bit of info because I wanted to be here."
Mahomes is on track for his second MVP season, leading the league in passing yards and touchdowns with the Chiefs on track to lock up the number-one seed in the AFC, earning a first-round bye in the play-offs.
But he has a score to settle on Sunday when the Chiefs travel to Cincinnati to face the Bengals in a rematch of last year's AFC Championship game, when Mahomes and his offence went cold and lost out on a place in the Super Bowl to an inspired Joe Burrow and company.
