KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes stood in front of the media for about nine minutes Thursday, and for a short portion of them, he recapped how he spends the other 23-plus hours of his day.
You know, the time we don’t see him.
His preparation for the AFC Championship Game opens with an early-morning trip to the practice facility for treatment on a high-ankle sprain, followed by a stroll to the meeting rooms, then the media requirements, more rehab, an actual practice, additional treatment on the ankle and then film work, all before the day ultimately ends like it begins — treatment on the right ankle.
It’s a jam-packed schedule, an ankle the responsible party for it and now center of its attention. And as luck would have it, during a week in which he could probably use a break, the film is even more cumbersome than usual.
The Chiefs won’t say this first part out loud, but it’s more difficult not because the Bengals are necessarily the best opponent Mahomes will see this year, nor because of the stakes involved, but instead because Cincinnati has thrown just about everything at Mahomes over the past 12 months.
First, they blitzed. Then they dropped in coverage. Then they kind of just played it straight.
“It’s never the same,” Mahomes said.
With one exception.
See, for all of the moving parts, there is a commonality tucked into the last two head-to-head matchups in particular, like a thread on which the Bengals hang their defensive hopes. Whatever they mix into the back end with coverage, their scheme up front has been designed to turn Mahomes into a pocket passer. To prevent him from turning scramble plays into game-changing plays.
To turn him into the player that, well, his high-ankle sprain might turn him into anyway.
There’s some irony in the opponent that will march into Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, with a Super Bowl trip on the line at GEHA Field.
The Bengals are the ones who best trained him for this.
Mahomes is expected to be at least somewhat limited by his right-ankle injury, and it’s reasonable to expect those limitations will reverberate in throughout, but loudest in his reluctance to maneuver outside the pocket — a dynamic part of his game that typically separates him from other quarterbacks in the league.
Thing is, he’s been prepping for that all year, in part because of what the Bengals did to him 12 months earlier. They made him look human, even if just for one half of football.
In its aftermath, there remains a clear effect of that loss, a combination of intentionality and just plain circumstance. A year ago in that AFC Championship Game, the Bengals brought only three rushers on 19 of Mahomes’ 46 drop-backs, per data from Sports Info Solutions (SIS). Rather than use the extra defender in the secondary to aid coverage, they instead put a spy on Mahomes; they also had their defensive linemen stay in their lanes; and they prevented Mahomes from cashing his scrambles in for bigger chips.
They dared Mahomes to beat them from the pocket.
And he didn’t. He completed 8 of 17 passes while standing between the tackles during a second-half collapse, throwing two interceptions in the process. Almost instinctively, he still attempted to leave the pocket four times to make plays — as though he was searching for his long-trusted security blanket. Ready and waiting with a spy and disciplined linemen, the Bengals sacked him on three of the four. (Mahomes has been sacked only once in 121 drop-backs this season when exiting the pocket.)
The Chiefs had an offseason to think about all of that. They knew what got them. Knew some other teams might try the same. Knew this team, in particular, almost certainly would try the same.
Basically, they spent an offseason anticipatory of the circumstances this ankle injury — not simply a rematch with the Bengals — will demand.
Mahomes needs to beat a team primarily from the pocket.
To be clear, there remains no quarterback more successful outside the tackles than this one. It’s not a lost art in his game; it’s a significant aspect of it, but we have to operate under the assumption it is likely to be limited as the Chiefs try to qualify for their third Super Bowl in four seasons.
Here’s the difference in a year — the difference in an elite quarterback and an NFL MVP front-runner: He’s the league’s best quarterback inside the pocket now, too.
Mahomes has thrown 35 touchdowns while stationed between his left tackle and the one protecting him on his right, the most in the league, per SIS. He ranks second in passer rating. And he has totaled 105 expected points added over the season, a 23% year-over-year improvement. Second most in that category? Buffalo’s Josh Allen sits at 70 expected points added. It’s a boat race, and Mahomes is running inside his lanes as he laps the field.
In 2021, for comparison’s sake, Mahomes rated ninth in passer rating and sixth in touchdowns from inside the pocket — the location that stumped him in the title-game loss to the Bengals.
That game narrowed a training camp’s focus. And the training camp’s focus produced the best quarterback in the NFL this season.
It would be hard to sell it all as a coincidence.
Even against the Bengals. Somewhere along the way, it’s been lost in translation that the Bengals got Mahomes again this regular season. The Chiefs punted once in eight drives that game. They had more points per drive (3.0) than they did in the regular season (2.76), and they paced the NFL in that category in the regular season.
Why? Mahomes beat them from the pocket. He amassed a 107.4 passer rating while staying put.
What did the Bengals expect? They backed him into a corner. Forced him to be a pocket passer.
As a very obvious consequence, they demanded he prepare for the rematch.
In a less expected consequence, they helped him prepare for what a win Sunday will almost certainly require.
To beat the Bengals from the pocket.
