Travis Kelce reveals when he knew Patrick Mahomes was special

The shock surrounding the 2017 NFL Draft, when the Kansas City Chiefs traded up from the No. 27 overall pick to the No. 10 pick to select Patrick Mahomes, is easily forgotten. As Mahomes is now coming off of a season where he secured his second league MVP, Super Bowl win, and Super Bowl MVP award.

He’s now already regarded not only as one of the best, but one of the most captivating quarterbacks in league history just six years into his young career. One of his favorite targets throughout his career, tight end Travis Kelce, has witnessed Mahomes’ greatness firsthand and shared with the ‘Pardon My Take’ podcast when he first personally recognized it for himself.

“Honestly his best plays might have been on that scout team going against the number one defense his rookie year. The s*** he was doing in those practices was mind-blowing, he had no filter. He was just out there like, well if this doesn’t matter I can just throw it over here,” Kelce said making a sound effect of a ball being thrown. “The defense was just demoralized in practice, they’re like what the f***, this kid’s dicing us up right now and all these are scouted looks, we know what’s coming.”

Mahomes was not the most polished prospect entering the 2017 draft, spending his rookie season sitting behind veteran quarterback Alex Smith to sharpen his game. But his unique ability to extend plays and deliver the football in a variety of ways was seemingly undeniable even at practice according to Kelce.

But in Week 17 during the Chiefs’ regular-season finale, a star was born, as Mahomes had his first opportunity to show off his practice skills in a game situation.

“Once I saw him do it week after week after week and then he finally went in against the Denver Broncos, a game that we already had the number one seed in the playoffs and everything. They put Pat in to just get his feet wet his rookie year, they sat Alex because we already had the one seed,” Kelce explained. “So he plays flawless the entire game, we end up putting our backup in, our backup fumbles the ball or throws and interception and Denver actually gets back into the lead and we need a two-minute drill to win the game.”

A two-minute drive with Mahomes under center sounds like a defense’s worst nightmare, just ask the Buffalo Bills following the 2021-2022 season. But even in his first-ever two-minute drill at the professional level Mahomes delivered.

“Well, Pat goes back out there, after being in like five-degree weather on the sidelines just chilling for a quarter, goes back in and just walks them right down the field. That was Denver’s number one defense, that was their first team defense because they were still in the hunt or I know they were still playing their ones. When I saw that I was like he can translate what he does in practice onto the field and just be as good,” Kelce said.

Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 27-24 win that evening and the rest is history, as he and Kelce have more than made their impact on the game ever since and will look to keep building on their impressive careers moving forward.