Should the Chiefs really think about starting Patrick Mahomes?
By Josh Hill
After one of the most embarrassing losses in recent memory, there’s a growing movement among Chiefs fans for Patrick Mahomes to start.
The favorite player of any football fan is always the backup quarterback. I grew up in Minnesota and have a ton of Vikings fans as friends. Nothing proved this backup quarterback theory more than when people I consider to be friends were clamoring for Joe Webb to start under center.
Webb plays wide receiver now.
Losing is what brings these feelings to the surface, and Chiefs fans are experiencing all of these emotions. Alex Smith looks liked the best quarterback in football for five weeks and has since fallen off a cliff (see also: regressed to who we thought he was). After Sunday’s 12-9 overtime (!!!) loss to the hapless Giants, there is a growing online movement calling for rookie Patrick Mahomes to start next week against Buffalo.
This is a very stupid idea. It’s not that fans shouldn’t be worked up, it’s that there’s no need to ruin one thing to try and make yourself feel better about another. Let’s walk through this real quick:
3. Alex Smith hasn’t bottomed out yet
This will probably infuriate Chiefs fans, but the tank isn’t empty on Smith yet. It might seem that way, but for as bad as he’s been we can’t forget how good he was the first few games of the season. There’s hope that Smith can tap back into that and fire himself back up in time for the playoffs.
Perhaps the first five weeks of this season was a fluke, but the Chiefs need to find out. Look at what happened to Buffalo when it was brazenly decided that the team would switch to a rookie. Mahomes is better than Peterman but why even take that risk of rushing him in too soon.
Jay Cutler gives up after he throws some picks and screws his team. Smith has never shown that low of a motor before and has always played with a chip on his shoulder. He might not work himself out of this funk but he’s earned the right to play this out the rest of the way.
If he picks himself up, then the Chiefs have themselves a quarterback again. If he doesn’t, then that makes transitioning to Mahomes even easier next season.