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Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes has been forced to adapt to circumstances this season he didn’t have to face consistently earlier in his career, specifically when it comes to being under pressure from the opposing pass rush.
“It’s a part of football,” Mahomes said matter-of-factly. “We’ve played a lot of good defenses this year. That’s the one bad thing about when you win the Super Bowl. You play the best schedule and we’ve played a lot of good defensive ends and defensive linemen.”
The Kansas City Chiefs have played difficult schedules before, but this season has been their worst in terms of protecting Mahomes, who has been sacked 13 times in the past three games and 23 in the past six.
He has been sacked 35 times in 13 games this season, already more than in any season of his career. His previous high in a full season was 28. And it’s not that opponents have put an emphasis of pressuring Mahomes. He has been blitzed on 24.4% of his dropbacks, the fifth-lowest percentage in the league, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
The Chiefs have started three different players at left tackle this season. The first two, rookie Kingsley Suamataia and Wanya Morris, were so disappointing they were benched.
Last week against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Chiefs turned to veteran D.J. Humphries, who signed as a free agent two weeks ago. But he was not an improvement, giving up eight pressures in 40 pass blocking attempts, according to Next Gen Stats. The pressure rate of 20% was the second highest given up by a Chiefs left tackle in a game this season.
Sunday’s game against the Browns in Cleveland (1 p.m. ET, CBS) brings an added urgency to improve. Their featured pass rusher is Myles Garrett, who is tied for second in the league with 11 sacks.
“You have to give him different looks,” Mahomes said. “You can’t let him just pass rush over and over again. He’s won defensive player of the year for a reason. He’s going to win a lot of those matchups. So we will throw him changeups. We’ll throw him different pitches that he can hopefully keep his mind racing, but at the end of the day, he’s going to make plays happen.
“When he starts to win reps or win certain plays, you have to not make negative plays, get rid of the football, even if that’s throwing it away and live to play another play.”
Mahomes indicated he deserves some blame for his high sack total, saying on certain plays he has held the ball too long. He cited the first sack he took against the Chargers, which came on third down on the first drive of the game and led the Chiefs to kick a field goal.
“There are times where I’m trying to be greedy and trying to take a shot downfield,” he said. “Look at the early sacks in this last game. On that first third down. I probably [should] just hit [Travis Kelce] and he maybe or maybe not gets the first down, but I’m trying to really hold onto it and then I rush up in the pocket, try to make a play and run into a sack.”
Mahomes turned to the quick passing game against the Chargers and made it work. He completed 17 of 19 throws, or about 90%, when he passed within 2.5 seconds, according to Next Gen Stats. He was 7-of-18 when taking more than 2.5 seconds.
Mahomes has done more quick passing this season than at any time in his career, a sign he’s adapting to new circumstances. Asked whether Mahomes could have adapted this way earlier in his career, coach Andy Reid indicated he was unsure, saying, “We didn’t ask him to do a whole lot of that.”
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy added, “That might have been more difficult for him as a young, up-and-coming guy that wants to throw 75 touchdown passes every year and have a million explosive [plays].
“He’s really maturing and growing as a quarterback. His mentality is not changing. Don’t get that part twisted. He’s still trying to go downfield. But if they’re not going to give it to him, grow as a quarterback and don’t throw 30 interceptions. He’s done a great job with that.”
The Chiefs similarly struggled on offense last season, though the issues were different. Then, the Chiefs had few reliable wide receivers and led the league in dropped passes.
Mahomes after the season acknowledged his frustration. He said he sees more hope this season than he did last year, when the Chiefs overcame their problems to win a second consecutive Super Bowl.
This time, if the Chiefs are going to get a third straight championship, it could well depend on his continued ability to handle the pressure.
“We have to be able to hit some of these explosive plays,” Mahomes said. “Once you do that, it opens up everything else. It seems like we stall out on drives [and] on little things and I’ve said that kind of all year long, but it is close. I truly believe we are close, closer than we were last year at this point.
“It’s just about finding a way to prove it on the football field on … game days. Then we can kind of go into the playoffs with some momentum.”