Nine teams in the 2017 NFL Draft passed on Patrick Mahomes before the Chiefs traded up to land their future franchise quarterback.
Naturally, the Jets were one of those teams.
New York selected Jamal Adams sixth overall, opting to bulk up its secondary instead of going after Mahomes. Adams now resides in Seattle after a tumultuous end to his tenure with the Jets, while Mahomes has earned Super Bowl MVP and league MVP honors with Kansas City.
While speaking with reporters on Wednesday prior to the Jets’ Week 8 matchup with the Chiefs, Mahomes disclosed that he met with New York prior to the draft and thought that the organization had a serious interest in selecting him.
“I thought there was interest there,” Mahomes said. “Whenever you get on those visits, you know that they’re pretty interested in doing their due diligence. I mean, I definitely thought there was interest there, but at the time they drafted a great player in Jamal Adams and you can’t really argue with that one.”
Did Patrick Mahomes think there was a good chance the Jets would draft him in 2017?
"Yeah, I definitely thought there was interest there" pic.twitter.com/9NjNGSGVKV
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) October 28, 2020
Instead of drafting Mahomes, the Jets entered 2017 with Josh McCown, Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty leading the charge under center. McCown led New York to a 5-8 record before succumbing to injury, while Hackenberg never appeared in a game for the Jets and is now taking a crack at a baseball career. Petty did not fare much better, playing in only 10 games with the Jets before being released. He is also out of the NFL.
The Jets are no strangers to passing on franchise quarterbacks in the draft. New York selected Ken O’Brien over Dan Marino in the 1983 NFL Draft, a decision that still haunts the franchise to this day. Mahomes has already one-upped Marino with a Super Bowl ring and, if he continues at his current pace, is primed to go down as one of football’s greatest quarterbacks of all-time.
Picking Adams, a sure-fire star in the secondary, over Mahomes, who entered the league as a raw prospect with limited experience reading defenses, made sense at the time. Hindsight is 20/20, though. Mahomes could have been suiting up for the Jets this weekend. Instead, a struggling Sam Darnold is under center and opposing him.
New York was not the only team to pass on Mahomes, but it’s hard not to wonder what could have been if Mike Maccagnan brought him to the Big Apple.