“One of the problems with looking back seven years and seeing a player nine teams passed on, a player who might become the best quarterback ever to play, is that revisionist history dots the landscape.” – King on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes
“We all know now that what makes Mahomes Mahomes is his ethos. He’d cut off his left pinky to win. He’s the latter-day (Tom) Brady in that way. And that is so, so important.” – King on Mahomes
“Watching this game, you see, at crucial times, KC rushers in on Brock Purdy in a split-second, and you know that’s the imprint of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.” – King on Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo
STAMFORD, Conn. – Feb. 19, 2024 – Peter King discusses the events leading up to the Chiefs drafting Patrick Mahomes with the tenth pick of the 2017 NFL Draft in this week’s edition of Football Morning in America, available now exclusively on NBCSports.com. King also discusses the gameplan of Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, his Super Bowl LVIII thoughts, and more.
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The following are highlights from this week’s edition of Football Morning in America:
DRAFTING PATRICK MAHOMES
King on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes: “One of the problems with looking back seven years and seeing a player nine teams passed on, a player who might become the best quarterback ever to play, is that revisionist history dots the landscape.”
King on Mahomes: “We all know now that what makes Mahomes Mahomes is his ethos. He’d cut off his left pinky to win. He’s the latter-day (Tom) Brady in that way. And that is so, so important.”
Former Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians on Mahomes’ pre-draft workout with the team: “One of the best quarterback workouts I’ve seen in my life. Maybe only Andrew Luck’s was better.”
King on pre-draft reports on Mahomes: “Teams questioned Mahomes because he had malleable mechanics, because at Texas Tech there wasn’t much discipline to his wild-horse game, because Texas Tech had a lousy history of producing pro quarterbacks in the wide-open offense, and because Mahomes took lots of chances playing with a bad team. Basically, he was a formative Brett Favre.”
King on the nine teams that passed on Mahomes in the 2017 draft: “And the others that passed on Mahomes—Chicago, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Tennessee and the Jets—have had their share of quarterback misadventures over the past seven years. Drafting quarterbacks might be the most inexact science in all of sports. But the nine teams that passed on Mahomes on April 27, 2017, will remember the night for a long, long time.”
King on the Chiefs’ post-draft plan with Mahomes: “Kansas City drafted Mahomes with a rock-solid plan—sit behind Alex Smith in year one, soak in everything from a great tutor and good player, work on mechanics, learn the NFL.”
STEVE SPAGNUOLO
King on the impact of Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII win: “Watching this game, you see, at crucial times, KC rushers in on Brock Purdy in a split-second, and you know that’s the imprint of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.”
Spagnuolo on the 3rd-and-five play call in the fourth quarter that held the 49ers to a field goal and gave Mahomes time for an overtime-forcing drive: “(Nick Bolton) likes the play. So I change it. We change personnel. But that’s the thing about Nick—we’ve built up this trust. I trust him, he trusts me. When he nodded, I knew it was the right call.”
Spagnuolo on King comparing the 2023 Chiefs defense to the 2007 Giants defense: “Wow, that Giants team. You’re right. Same thing…Everybody playing a role along with the big names. I hadn’t thought about that ’07 win over the Patriots, but it was the same thing. The number one glue guy on that defense was Antonio Pierce, the middle of the defense. Look where he is now—coach of the Raiders. That’s so great for him. And the glue guy for us is our guy in the middle of the defense, Nick Bolton.”
King on Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s offensive system: “This franchise is not a democracy, but in terms of play-calling, it’s a meritocracy. All ideas welcome, and the best ones get used.”
SUPER BOWL
Independent analyst Mike McRoberts on agreeing with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s decision to receive the overtime kickoff: “Whoever designed this rule did a good job, because the outcome should not be determined by the coin flip, and each team gets at least one full possession. It’s not gimmicky at all.”
King on the 49ers not knowing the overtime rules: “I understand one part of the criticism leveled at (Kyle) Shanahan about taking the ball to start overtime. Many of his players say they didn’t know the new overtime rules, and so if they’d scored a TD on the first possession, they could have gotten an unsportsmanlike penalty that would have shortened the field for Mahomes.”
King on the criticism of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy’s Super Bowl LVIII performance: “Of course there are five or six throws he wishes he could have back, but for a guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders entering this game, and then to start 8-of-9, looking like he was playing in a May 7-on-7 drill, well, I found his poise to be pretty impressive on the big stage.”
Read the full FMIA column here and catch the weekly Peter King Podcast here.
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- The NFL on NBC YouTube channel offers daily football content for free, with exclusive videos from Peter King – including his interviews with players and coaches at training camps – Mike Florio, Chris Simms, and more. To access all of these videos and more, click here to subscribe.
A new “Football Morning in America” posts every Monday morning exclusively on NBCSports.com through the NFL season. It was announced in May 2019 that King signed an exclusive agreement with NBC Sports Group that included writing a weekly Monday morning NFL column for NBCSports.com; making regular appearances on PFT Live with Mike Florio; and continuing to contribute to Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports.
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