NFL Network’s James Palmer has the poop on what Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is up to this offseason and it’s not just changing the diapers of his newborn daughter.
According to Palmer, Mahomes is focused on improving his efficiency as a passer this offseason. Obviously, he’s still wearing a walking boot, so the work he can do on the field and in the training room is rather limited. We do have some confirmation that Mahomes is doing at least some physical training, but Palmer says that he’s working predominately on the mental side of the game.
Mahomes wants to figure out the types of ways that he can become more efficient as a passer and adjust his game accordingly. The hopes are that they can achieve some better balance on offense between the explosive downfield plays and the ones that can sustain drives.
There is one word that has been a focus for #chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes this offseason. Here’s what he’s concentrating on. My report on NFL Network on NFL NOW pic.twitter.com/6ub3qDx23Z
— James Palmer (@JamesPalmerTV) April 7, 2021
“Well there’s a lot of mental work going on,” Palmer said. “You mentioned the boot and that’s where most of his focus is right now. My understanding is that the word is efficiency, for this whole offseason. He wants to be more efficient as a quarterback, become more complete as a quarterback. He knows that he has a tendency to be very aggressive. He loves to go downfield with the football, loves to try to push it vertically. But at the same time, he’s studying different ways to move the football downfield. There were a lot of coverages this past offseason, a lot of teams playing them very deep. When he goes back and watches the film, there are underneath throws that are there. There are ways to stay on the field, keep moving the football and be more efficient.”
Even ahead of the 2020 NFL season, Mahomes spoke about working on efficiency. He wanted to work on his footwork and find different ways to connect with his receivers rather than simply throwing it deep. Some of that won’t just be on Mahomes either, the team will need to adjust their playcalling. They’ll also need to make sure that the other personnel, like the offensive line and receiving corp are on the same page.
“The other part of that is evolving this offense,” Palmer continued. “This offense, this past year was very different than it was two seasons ago and everybody is coming back, including the coaching staff to where they’re going to continue to evolve, once again. Because we know that Todd Bowles went out there and he showed everybody a game plan against this offense. Now they’re going to continue to evolve with the offensive line, a lot of that is a part of it, but adjusting what they do offensively, a big part of this offseason.”
I’m not sure how much of the Buccaneers’ victory in Super Bowl LV was game plan. You’re rarely going to face a team down their top offensive linemen at four separate positions. At the same time, the Chiefs didn’t do a great job of adjusting their plan given those injuries to the offensive line. Mahomes kept trying to push the ball down the field despite having near-instantaneous pressure. It makes plenty of sense within that context why Mahomes would be working on finding ways to become more efficient.
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