Why Patrick Mahomes says last year ‘wasn’t fun’ and how it relates to this Chiefs team

Andy Reid parked his black pickup truck in a spot specifically reserved for it, and shortly afterward began his stroll toward the set of double doors for Scanlon Hall, the Chiefs’ home on the Missouri Western State campus for the next month.

When he looked up, a few dozen cameras and iPhones stared back at him.

“It’s like being in Hollywood,” Reid quipped.

There will be some added attention on the Chiefs this year, a team accustomed to plenty of attention already, because the last few seasons have gone pretty well.

Let me rephrase that, because it’s an important distinction: Last season ended pretty well.

It did not actually go all that well, though I’d understand if you’ve forgotten that part. The Chiefs had their worst season of the six in the Patrick Mahomes era. That’s based on any number of criteria, but don’t look past the obvious.

They won fewer games, gained fewer yards on offense, scored fewer points and had a worse playoff seed than any season in which Mahomes has been in Kansas City. Oh, and Mahomes had the lowest touchdown percentage, highest interception percentage, lowest passer rating and lowest passing yards-per-game of his six years as a starter.

Or, just skip everything in that paragraph and read these next three words:

“It wasn’t fun,” Mahomes said.

Think about that comment, which came Tuesday afternoon as rookies and quarterbacks reported to training camp. The guy who finished the postseason holding the Lombardi Trophy said the regular season that directly preceded it wasn’t fun. (He said a bit more — full quote coming.)

Which provides yet one more peek into why he was the guy holding that trophy.

The frustration sticks with him.

The payoff, however, is a thing of the past.

It’s an innate quality in Mahomes, such a defining characteristic that five years ago, as he embarked on his first trip to the Super Bowl, his mom recalled a story that she thought would best describe him. As a little league baseball player, Mahomes had left behind a championship trophy at the field. They didn’t realize it until they returned home, and when his mom mentioned that they should go back and retrieve it as a keepsake, he wasn’t interested. Just plain didn’t care.

That’s applicable here. He remains more motivated by the absence of a reward than by the reward itself.

The Chiefs need that feeling to permeate throughout the group this year, and perhaps more than ever.

There will be some obvious questions about complacency this season, but if we’re being honest, the root of some of them will be a bit misguided. It is indeed a factor with most defending champions, and probably one of the reasons the NFL spanned two decades between repeat winners. It’s easy to lose some motivation.

But the carrot of a three-peat has to be quite enticing, no?

The real danger of complacency for this group in Kansas City (or St. Joseph for a month), therefore, does not come from the comfort of past accomplishments. That danger derives from accomplishing the end goal despite having a pretty crappy year. (That’s relatively speaking, of course.)

Or a pretty, well, not fun year.

How do you convince everyone on the roster that July days in St. Joseph, Missouri, are important when, as it turned out, it was just fine to stink up Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas Day? There was still time in late December to figure it out. Or how about that it turned out just fine to have all those worst-in-the-Mahomes-era marks? Can’t you just flip the switch in January and February? After all, they did it a year ago.

Those are the real questions confronting this team, not just now but throughout next year. The comments from Mahomes offer a peek into the answer — a reminder that he is the answer, and not just for his talent.

You can remind yourself of what he apparently needs no reminder.

That full quote, as promised:

“I mean, obviously the end result was awesome, but I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth,” Mahomes said. “We really didn’t play football the way we wanted all year long. It wasn’t fun. Every single week, having to try to just continue to get better and better and the results not paying off the way you want it to — it wasn’t a lot of fun.”

The ultimate goal in the end.

A bad (taste) in his mouth as the next year begins.

He is motivated by the latter, and therefore it’s not only where his focus must rest but the focus of those contributing to the ride-along.

The Chiefs, after all, have a plethora of areas in which to improve — their deep passing game, their penalties, their turnovers, and on it goes. They could’ve made their playoff route, as difficult as the NFL has ever seen based on DVOA metrics, a heck of a lot easier. They were an anomaly, and it might take a reminder they aren’t creating a new trend.

Last year, they got through those obstacles.

A year later, they can’t forget their existence.