Yahoo Sports Patrick Mahomes reveals on LeBron James' show that he only recently learned to read defenses
You’ll have to go a long way to find a young quarterback who has fared as well in his first three seasons as Patrick Mahomes.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ 24-year-old superstar, fresh off winning Super Bowl MVP, has been making the media rounds recently. First with Yahoo Sports, in which he revealed his offseason plans, and now with the LeBron James HBO show “The Shop,” a preview of which was released on Friday afternoon.
And in the preview, Mahomes — who threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdown during his MVP season in 2018 – admitted something that stunned the cast, and should terrify the rest of the league.
“I really didn’t understand how to read defenses until halfway through like, last year,” Mahomes said, referring to 2018. “I understood coverages, but how to be able to pick up little tendencies defenses do, stuff that [Tom] Brady and them have done, stuff that they know it and they just do it. I was just playing.
“And then this year, I could actually recognize more and more stuff. And I think the more experience and the more I learn, then I’ll be able to go out there and call plays and do that different stuff because I’ve seen it. I still think there’s a long way for me to go there, and that’s where mentally, I think I can still get better.
“Physically, I feel like I’ve done a lot of stuff, I always work on the fundamentals. But mentally, I can still take my game to a whole ’nother level.”
Mahomes missed two games in 2019 due to a knee injury, but still finished with 4,031 passing yards, 26 touchdowns and five interceptions for the Chiefs, who won their first Super Bowl in 50 years in early February.
If Mahomes is correct about having room to grow as a player, it’s hard to imagine it won’t be Kansas City’s last with him at the helm.
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