Mahomes says Matt Nagy helped him ace pre-draft interview with Andy Reid
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes joined his tight end Travis Kelce on his New Heights podcast with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, and dropped some insight into how he ended up with the Chiefs.
In the 2017 NFL Draft, the Chiefs traded up from the No. 27 pick to the No. 10 pick to draft Mahomes out of Texas Tech.
But before draft night, Mahomes was given an edge for his meeting with head coach Andy Reid by then-offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.
"He really liked me, so he gave me the plays they were gonna go over, the night before. so coach Reid is finding out right here live on New Heights podcast," Mahomes said.
With the answers to the test, Mahomes impressed Reid and the entire coaching staff and ended up as the face of the franchise shortly after.
"We went and had some lunch, he had a couple cheeseburger, we went back [to the facility], I went back to the board and I seemed like a guru because I knew every single check," Mahomes said.
Nagy responded to questions about the sharing of intel during Thursday's press conference.
"It's always a unique and fun process going through that. You go back to that time every year you're prepping for different positions, different players. It's such a lengthy and grueling process, I think it is very safe to say there was a major consensus in our building of who we liked and, me being the coordinator/quarterbacks coach, I could have a little part of that to be able to help out and see where he's at."
He followed up his professional answer with the real answer:
"Yeah, maybe a little bit," Nagy said as he laughed. "Ii thought Patrick did a hell of a job on the test. Coach was giving him some good questions on the plays and Patrick knew what he was doing."
After draft night, the rest became history. Mahomes would go on to sit a season behind quarterback Alex Smith before taking over as QB1 in 2018 and exploding on the scene with an MVP, Super Bowl LIV victory, Super Bowl LIV MVP, a second Super Bowl appearance, and four straight AFC Championships.