Patrick Mahomes was selected 9th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes has went on to have one the greatest starts to a career of any quarterback in history.
Mahomes himself is primarily known for his ability to throw the football but when he needs to he can run it as well. Despite this running ability, many fans do not know Patrick Mahomes 40 time.
Patrick Mahomes ran the 40-yard dash in 4.80 seconds at the 2017 NFL combine. This is an official 40 yard dash time because it was recorded at the combine using electronic timing.
Unofficial times are typically recorded at pros days using stopwatches which are much less accurate.
To get a feel for how fast Patrick Mahomes is it helpful to check out some other 40 times of the league’s top quarterbacks.
Tom Brady for example ran a forty-yard dash of 5.28 seconds. More mobile quarterbacks tended to beat Brady by a larger margin with Daniel Jone’s 40 time being 4.81 and Justin Fields 40 time being 4.44.
Pre Draft Criticisms
Coming into the draft Mahomes had criticisms against him just like any other quarterback. Now that Mahomes has torn up the league for several years now it can be entertaining to look back on the pre-draft takes against him.
Too Eager To Go For Big Plays
One of the knocks against Mahomes, as he was entering the draft, was that he too often attempted to go for the long touchdown. As a quarterback, you typically need to take what you can get once you get into the NFL.
This obviously hasn’t been the case for Mahomes who has consistently led the Chiefs to be an incredibly explosive offense, often scoring on long passing touchdowns.
That being said one of the most effective ways to stop Mahomes is by committing two safeties deep down the field to stop long passes.
Decision-making can go from good to bad in a moment’s notice
Another criticism of Patrick Mahomes as he came into the NFL was that he wasn’t always the most consistent in his decision-making. Though he often looked the part he could quickly deteriorate throughout a game.
This turned out to be very inaccurate as Mahomes is one of the better decision-making quarterbacks in the NFL.
Needs better touch on intermediate and deep balls
Scouts and analysts also believed that Mahomes needed to improve his accuracy on deep and intermediate throws.
This take was proven totally inaccurate as Mahomes consistently beats opposing teams by throwing the ball downfield. In fact, short passes are not a common part of Mahome’s offense as he prefers to go for larger plays.
