Patrick Mahomes recently hoisted his third Lombardi Trophy in five years, cementing his Hall of Fame track as the quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty. Unsurprisingly, plenty of other teams now insist they had designs to draft the signal-caller years ago. But one former NFL head coach, in particular, admitted recently he was shocked Mahomes didn't fall to his team.
"I was stunned," former Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians told NBC Sports. "I figured (the Chiefs) were a playoff team with a good quarterback in Alex Smith. I thought Pat was gonna fall to us."
Arians' Cardinals picked No. 13 overall in 2017, the year Mahomes went 10th to Kansas City, after the Chiefs traded up with the Buffalo Bills. Arians has said previously he wanted Arizona to target Mahomes, but apparently he also expected the Texas Tech prospect to make it out of the top 10. One of Arians' peers, current Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton, did not.
"We really like this Patrick Mahomes kid," Payton had said inside the New Orleans Saints' draft room, per Peter King. "He's the steal of the draft. I'm not sure everyone knows that."
So why didn't Payton and the Saints -- whose general manager, Mickey Loomis, was reportedly also "smitten" with Mahomes -- just move up to take the QB themselves? Drew Brees was still in town at that time, and would go on to play four more seasons as the Saints' QB. But he was also in town literally, making his first-ever in-person visit to the Saints' facilities on draft day, according to Payton, which King suggests "created a bit of an awkward situation."
Payton ultimately informed Brees of the team's interest in Mahomes, but there was another factor that prevented the Saints from eyeing a trade up: They had Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore graded as a top-three pick in the draft. Rather than move, they stood pat, watched Andy Reid and the Chiefs take Mahomes at No. 10, then comfortably took Lattimore at No. 11.
"Which was really not bad for us," Payton told NBC Sports recently, "because we had a need for Marshon Lattimore, and he turned out to be a very good player for us."
