Patrick Mahomes is now taking his training home with him as mandatory minicamp wraps up for the Chiefs.
The Kansas City Chiefs are getting ready to wrap up their mandatory minicamp on Thursday, which means all 90 players are now free to stay at Arrowhead Stadium and work out or lay on the beach in Bermuda for the next six weeks or so. Summer vacation is here for the Chiefs, and now players who are still continuing to develop will learn their craft on their own turf and on their own time.
For newly drafted quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he says he’s focused on the right things, just getting to know the playbook day after day and working on the things that the Chiefs have pointed out for him to learn. He’s seen a ways forward in organized team activities and minicamp with the team and now it’s up to him to continue that.
"“It’s all about stringing good days back to back and not having bad days,” Mahomes told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s all about progression and I’m just trying to get better every single day … [It’s] just knowing the playbook more and more, each day helps out. You just have to stay on it and keep learning, that’s how you put good days on top of each other.”"
Mahomes says he’s likely going to hire a quarterback coach to work with him in the time away but hasn’t yet figured out who that will be, to “stay on top of the footwork and playbook.”
"“I haven’t decided on one yet, but I’m sure I’ll find one here in the next week or two while I’m still here,” he said."
Mahomes certainly faces a steep learning curve to the NFL after being drafted by the Chiefs at No. 10 overall out of Texas Tech, but so far things are progressing according to plan—one day at a time as Alex Smith leads the charge for 2017 and his eventual replacement learns in the wings. Both players (and all involved actually) continue to say and do the right things, per the script, which means this succession might work out as hoped. But the biggest test so far, with Mahomes heading out of Kansas City, is yet to come.