Before the Chiefs drafted him, Patrick Mahomes wanted to be with the Bears

Feb 3, 2023 - 2:43 PM

We’ve heard many pre-draft stories about Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. How the New Orleans Saints wanted to draft him. How Kansas City general manager Brett Veach was in love with him from the moment he first laid eyes on him. Or how Matt Nagy helped Mahomes ace his interview with head coach Andy Reid.

But now we have a new story to add to our collection.

Over the weekend, Pat Mahomes Sr. was a guest on the Parkins & Spiegel show on 670 The Score in Chicago, in which he revealed a previously unknown detail: the Chiefs were not his son’s first choice as an NFL destination.

According to his father, Mahomes was convinced that he was going to be the first quarterback taken in the 2017 NFL Draft — by the Chicago Bears.

“They told him they were going to draft him,” Mahomes Sr. said. “We thought he was going to be the third pick overall and go to Chicago. He had a great meeting when he went there and liked all the guys that were doing the stuff there and thought he was going to be a Bear.

“Then once they traded up and got Mitch, it kind of hurt him. It really did. He always knew that Kansas City had told him that they were going to come up and get him. They just didn’t know how far they’d have to go. But initially, he thought he was going to be a Chicago Bear.”

Of course, not everything that teams say before the draft is the smoking-hot gopsel. Teams will say (and do) things to confuse other teams. Agents play franchises off one another, trying to move a player up the draft boards. But according to Pat Sr., his son wanted to play for the Bears.

“He definitely wanted to be there,” Mahomes Sr. said. “He liked everything about it and he was looking forward to going there. Who doesn’t want to be the first quarterback taken in the draft? It was definitely a situation where he thought he was going to be there and be there for a long time.”

But instead, the Bears traded up to take North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky — whom they allowed to walk after the fourth year of his rookie deal. The Chiefs, of course, benefitted greatly from Chcago’s misstep, trading up to get Mahomes with the 10th overall selection. And by all accounts, once that happened, Mahomes was all-in on Kansas City — and has been ever since.

But what if Chicago had chosen to make the gutsy move: to go for the kid with the inconsistent footwork? Things might have turned out much differently. Instead — despite having talented young quarterback Justin Fields — they must dream about what could have been.

Would Mahomes have been the same player if he had started his career under John Fox — rather than sitting a year to learn from Reid and Alex Smith? Maybe he would have crashed and burned. Or maybe he would have succeeded wildly — and Fox (with a Super Bowl ring) would still be coaching in Chicago.

Life is full of what-ifs — things that we will never know. But there’s one thing we know for certain.

When it comes to Patrick Mahomes, every long-lost dream led us to where you are. Others who broke our hearts? They were like Northern stars — pointing us on our way to your magic arm. This much we know is true: that God blessed the broken road that led us straight to you.