Member » The Re-Up: It’s already time to stop compari

ng Patrick Mahomes to anyone else It’s our Monday morning afternoon column Juan Thornhill Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys , The Re-Up. In this column, I’ll write about some deeper thought I had about the last game and finish with some fun stuff to ponder at the article’s end. Check out last week’s column here.Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty ImagesI had been hoping, heading into Monday night’s game, that when Tuesday morning rolled around, for the first time in four tries, perhaps I’d be able to focus on someone or something other than Patrick Mahomes for this column.Who knew that it would be precisely the wrong game and wrong week to do so.While I could never sit here and kill the rest of team in its entirety—Mahomes wasn’t the only player who performed well (I’m looking right at you, Kareem Hunt)—I can say with confidence that for much of the time, Monday night just wasn’t the Chiefs’ night.There were obvious tackling issues, Travis Kelce—albeit his fault or not—had a few uncharacteristic drops and both Sammy Watkins and Dee Ford left the game early. The Denver defense became the first unit that punched Mahomes square in the mouth all year. And for a while—I’d say, three quarters or so—it seemed as if he would be down for the 10-count......and that’s because as writers and followers and fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, that is precisely what we’ve all become conditioned to expect.Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images“Man, I thought we were good. But yet again, we’ve been proven wrong.”It is why I love this comment from Andy Reid after the game, acknowledging just that when asked about how this year’s team compares to those of prior seasons.“Those teams are done,” Reid said. “That’s already been done so we have to keep on going. We’ve been here. We’ve put together some string of wins and then fallen down. You’ve got to keep pushing forward. We’ve got a great Jacksonville team coming in this weekend. You’ve got to get back and figure out how to take care of that. I’m proud of this group and I like this team. I like their effort and their tenacity. You don’t see any bickering going on or anyone giving up hope. It’s all been positive. Even when we are behind, guys are ready to make a play and get one done.”I look at Monday night’s game in Denver and I wonder, what, if anything, I will recall about it 20 years from now. Overcoming the 10-point deficit was nice, as at one point in the fourth quarter, ESPN gave the Broncos a 93.9 percent chance of winning the football game. But it’s not that.Mahomes’ navigation of the pocket on second-and-30 to free himself and find Demarcus Robinson for 23 yards was masterful, but I’m afraid I’ll probably forget that, too.What I’ll remember from Monday night in what hopefully will be a long career of thousands and thousands of plays is when Mahomes switched the ball to his damn left hand and completed a pass for a first down.They could tell you about it better than I ever could:“I didn’t think [about] it at all Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys Stitched ,” Mahomes told the media in his post-game press conference. “I was kind of just scrambling left. I felt [OLB] Von [Miller] on my back and knew I couldn’t throw it with my right hand, I knew we needed the first down, so I kind of shot-putted it to [Chiefs WR] Tyreek [Hill]. He got the first down and made a great play. You just have to get the ball in their hands somehow.”“Obviously, it was a great play,” Tyreek Hill said. “It caught me off guard. I’ve never seen a quarterback who is right handed throw the ball left-handed. [Chiefs QB] Pat [Mahomes] made a great play. Pat actually throws better than me, and I’m left handed, so that’s crazy. It was a good throw.”“I was gaining ground on him and I kind of just—it just felt like he was getting ready to throw it, so I was just trying to get down there and clip the ankles,” Broncos linebacker Von Miller explained. “I knew he was getting ready to throw it though. I kind of felt it. But I didn’t know he threw it with his left hand.”“I thought, ‘Is this dude a magician or something?’” running back Kareem Hunt said. “He is doing things that you don’t see often. He is a great player and I’m glad he’s on my team.”“Nobody in history has ever seen that,” safety Eric Murray said. “C’mon now. Nobody. I’ve never seen that one [in practice]. That one is new. I’m glad we all got to see it.”On social media, some called the play Brett Favresque.But I just don’t even know anymore. A colleague of mine, Carrington Harrison, came up with a segment on The Drive this past summer that pitted current successful quarterbacks up against Mahomes and asked if you would take the deal.For example, if you could guarantee Mahomes would be Matt Ryan, would you take it? Or would you settle for the mystery door? What about Matt Stafford? Andrew Luck?(Again, this was in the summer—try to think back to that time when you had no frame of reference)And now here we are and I’m thinking and I’m thinking, and I remember watching Favre and I look at his career and I can’t help but wonder: Favre wasn’t great until the fourth year of his career, when he was 25. Knowing what I know now about the recently-turned-23-year-old in Mahomes, would I even take Favre?Would I even take Tom F-cking Brady?The preseason Throw, the roll-out-right score to Chris Conley from Week 3 and the left-handed pass just have me feeling some kind of way, and I know I’m not alone.Sometimes the fun in talking sports becomes so much about comparisons.But I think it may be time to stop caring if Mahomes ends up being Favre or Manning. Let’s let him write his story.Through five games, it looks like it will be a fascinating one Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys 2019 , and the beauty of it all is that there really is no ceiling.THE RAPID REACTIONHere were my very first comments from the Arrowhead Pride postgame show Monday night. (full show)STAT OF THE GAMEOK. Take a second, and read this stat. Let it sink in, then read it again.GIF OF THE GAMETravis Kelce pretends to pocket the Broncos fans’ middle fingers. So good.TWEET(s) OF THE GAMEWe’ve got a couple this week.FIVE QUOTES1. CB Kendall Fuller on the energy the offense provides to the defense: “We definitely feed off them. Just the way they’ve been playing all year. That energy that they have carries over. I know they were excited to see us get off the field. It’s just going to keep on going the whole season.”2. LB Justin Houston on the resilience of the Chiefs to come back and win: “I think that shows a lot. We made the stops when we needed to and that should give the defense as a whole confidence. I think we just need to put a complete game together. We still have yet to put a complete game together. That’s our goal is to play the first quarter through the fourth quarter, a complete game of pure dominance. That’s what we want.”3. Broncos CB Chris Harris Jr. on going up against Patrick Mahomes: “I was covering. He made us cover for a long time. I had to go inside and get an IV. I had to get two IVs and I was just done. Just playing those extra times, he made us scramble in coverage the whole game. We couldn’t sack this man. He’s a hell of a player, he’s a hell of a quarterback. He made plays with his feet and I can’t wait to play him again though.”4. Broncos LB Von Miller struggling to sack Mahomes: “Yeah, it’s tough. He’s fast. We’ve got to get him down. That’s just plain and simple. He’s pretty fast. He’ll run all day, buy time and especially to the right, deep. I’m talking like 20 yards deep and then he’ll throw the ball 40 yards. He’s a great quarterback. He did a great job tonight.”5. Patrick Mahomes on his discipline in the pocket: “I’m not fast. I know that my strength is not running the ball. I know I have a lot of playmakers whose strength is catching the ball and making people miss. I know if I keep my eyes down field and get it to them, they’re going to keep working for me and make big plays.”THE BIG THOUGHTI don’t know if we talk about the Chiefs’ 2016 signing of right tackle Mitch Schwartz quite enough. When the Cleveland Browns completely botched bringing him back in free agency, the Chiefs pounced, inking him to a five-year contract. On Monday night, Schwartz started his 100th career game in 100 opportunities. Schwartz was named a second-team All-Pro the last three seasons, and he takes such pride in his streak that he even pushed and started the Chiefs’ meaningless Week 17 game last week against the Denver Broncos. Through three weeks this season entering Monday night, he had allowed three pressures in three games, and last night, his nemesis in Von Miller was held without a sack. In the NFL, you hear the clich茅 a lot—the best ability is availability. Like his former teammate Joe Thomas, who Schwartz looks up to, Schwartz provides exactly that for Kansas City. POLL OF THE WEEK Kareem Hunt went from the Kansas City Chiefs' practice field to looking for a job in about six hours, a spectacular fall for the NFL's reigning rushing champion.The Pro Bowl running back had been preparing for Sunday's game at Oakland when a months-old video surfaced online. The footage from a Cleveland hotel security camera showed Hunt shoving and kicking a woman, with police ultimately responding. No charges were filed.The Chiefs immediately sent Hunt home as the TMZ video rippled across social media. An organization that prides itself on providing second chances said in a statement late Friday it had released the 23-year-old star. The team was traveling Saturday.The NFL had no comment Friday night beyond saying Hunt was on the commissioner's exempt list, meaning he can't play or attend games while the league investigates.The question now for both the Chiefs and Hunt is simple: What's next?The Chiefs (9-2) are barreling toward the No. 1 seed in the playoffs Juan Thornhill black jersey , and the loss of their leading rusher is substantial. Hunt already had run for more than 800 yards and had 14 total touchdowns, helping Kansas City form one of the league's most dynamic offenses.His ability to churn out yards on the ground helped the Chiefs put away several games. His ability to catch passes out of the backfield had been just as useful.Yet the falloff to Spencer Ware isn't that significant.The Chiefs' backup was the unquestioned starter heading into last season, even after the team made Hunt their third-round pick. It wasn't until Ware 鈥?whose skill set closely mirrors that of Hunt 鈥?went down with a season-ending knee injury in the preseason that the rookie took over."There was a question whether he would be able to come back from that injury. It was a pretty tough injury to come back from," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said recently. "The last couple weeks he has played good football. You can see where he is more confident each week here."The Chiefs are also confident in backups Damien Williams and Darrel Williams. And with a soft schedule down the stretch, including two games against the Raiders, there is plenty of time for their offense to adjust to life without Hunt in the backfield.So that is what's next for the Chiefs. What happens to Hunt?The Chiefs and the NFL knew what happened in February in Cleveland, and the organization spoke to Hunt on several occasions before handling discipline internally. But neither the team nor the league had seen the video before it became public Friday.The NFL made multiple attempts to obtain it, a person familiar with the case told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The hotel informed the league that corporate policy allowed the video to be given only to law enforcement.The NFL then contacted Cleveland police, the person said. Police declined to provide the video. Police and hotel officials have not commented.The video showed Hunt lunging toward a woman and several others in a hotel hallway, and the player being restrained several times before knocking two people down. Two police reports were filed in which each person accuses the other: Hunt is listed as the suspect in one; a woman, Abigail Ottinger, is the suspect in the other.In its grainy and graphic footage, the video brought a new dimension to developments, showing that what Hunt had told the Chiefs was not the case. The team said he was "not truthful in those discussions."The matter brought immediate comparisons to the video of Ravens running back Ray Rice punching a woman in an elevator, which ultimately led to a long legal saga that ended with him never playing in the NFL again.The big difference between Rice and Hunt, though, is this: Rice was on the downward side of his career while Hunt was on the ascent.Being on the exempt list does not prevent another team from taking a chance on a player. That was the underlined when the Washington Redskins signed linebacker Reuben Foster, who had been cut last week after he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence.The Redskins faced harsh public criticism, and there will no doubt be a similar outcry if a team signs Hunt. But balancing such opposition against the benefits of a young star in his prime is a delicate decision for team executives.Hunt issued a brief apology late Friday, a small first step toward getting another chance. But as the Chiefs get ready to play in Oakland, Hunt will be watching on television.There are many more steps before Hunt takes the field again.If it ever happens.