News » By the time players reach the NFL

Derrick Thomas Jersey , it’s pretty reasonable to think there is not much they can do to surprise us.Most of them spent their college careers under the bright lights of a major program, where they’ve been interviewed, cataloged and analyzed to ridiculous lengths.Then comes the draft process, where it starts all over again. There’s a whole industry that’s grown up around collecting and collating every conceivable detail about these players so they can be endlessly discussed by NFL fans before draft day. How can there be anything we don’t know about these guys?Yet sometimes, they surprise us.And that continues to happen with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.We knew that he had incredible arm talent.We knew that he had incredible vision and athleticism.We knew he could be aggressive and make plays.Denny Medley-USA TODAY SportsBut the thing we did not know — that we could not know — was how he would adjust to being an NFL quarterback.During the opening days of training camp, Mahomes addressed this.“In high school, [the system] is very generic,” he said. “At Texas Tech, it is a spread. They put a lot on the quarterback, but it is still not as much as you do now. You get here and the complexity of the offense is something that you really have to get after it and grind through. For me, every single day is a learning experience, every single day I have to push myself to get better.”A few days later, head coach Andy Reid was obviously pleased with how Mahomes was working through all of it.“The great thing about Pat is that he never makes the same mistake twice,” Reid said. “It doesn’t happen. He sees everything. He knows it. When he makes a mistake Joe Montana Color Rush Jersey , he comes back and can talk to you about it. He’s done nothing but get better and better as we go. He has a load on him here and is responding exactly how we’d like. You don’t see him repeat mistakes. It’s fun to watch.”Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY SportsBut Reid has said that they expected this from Mahomes — as he did during the preparation for the Week 3 game against the San Francisco 49ers.“When we brought him in we spent a bunch of time with him trying to exhaust him with that day you can spend. We came out of it knowing he can handle a load. He came in behind Alex. You weren’t going to run out of gigabytes with Alex. [Pat is] right there. We haven’t slowed down with what we’re doing or anything else. Alex a brilliant guy and this guy is hanging right in there with it and has been since he got here. He is where we hoped he would be.”And as the season has progressed, so has Mahomes.Each week, when he’s asked about what he learned in the previous game, he gives us a window into his development — as he did on Sunday night after the 45-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.He was asked about what went wrong on his interception on Sunday night, when his pass to Tyreek Hill was underthrown.“Yeah, [Tyreek] burnt the dude.It wasn’t a bad read. It was Cover 4 and Tyreek was the post-alert. I had been asking Coach Reid for it all game. I got there and I was like, ‘I don’t want to overthrow him,’ but [I} forgot that you can’t overthrow him. I left it short and they picked it off.”Even on a successful play — like Kareem Hunt’s incredible 21-yard run that set up the Chiefs’ first touchdown of the game — afterward, Mahomes is thinking about what went wrong.“It was RPO (run-pass option) and I probably made the wrong read. Then I handed it to him. It should’ve been a tackle for loss and then he broke a tackle and jumped over a dude. This is a very talented defense who have a lot of guys who are built to stop the run. It just speaks to the strength and the power that [Kareem] has when he runs with the football.”We knew a lot about Mahomes before the Chiefs drafted him in 2017, and there was ample reason to be excited about his talent and potential.But what we didn’t know — his ability to learn and develop so quickly into one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks — is the best surprise we could have had. Welcome to the Week 9 edition of chiefStats!Last week, we took a moment to check in on Patrick Mahomes and his progress toward beating Peyton Manning’s 55 passing-touchdown record set in 2013. It turns out Mahomes needed to average 3.8 passing touchdowns per game to pass Manning at the end of the year.Mahomes did indeed get the four touchdowns he needed to maintain his pace to pass Manning. Mahomes’ progress towards the record will be something I’ll keep my eyes on as the season progresses.This week, the Chiefs face a Browns team which is undergoing some staff turnover. Here is this week’s Browns overview, courtesy of Bill Connelly’s advanced stats guide:1. Interim coachesThe biggest story leading into the Browns/Chiefs game is that Hue Jackson, and Todd Haley were both fired from the Browns the week leading up to the game. This leaves Gregg Williams as the interim head coach.Naturally Dustin Colquitt Jersey , the question arose — How well do interim coaches do in their first game?So, the average team with an interim head coach actually improves toward the end of the season. This actually works to the Chiefs’ disadvantage.I believe the spike in win percentage during the first game for an interim head coach is due to the level of unpredictability a new coach can bring into a game. The Chiefs could see anything on Sunday, and they won’t know what Williams has planned until they play the game.Another thing about these first games for interim head coaches is that the scores tended to swing wildly for both sides.2. Turnover taleEarly in the season, a lot of fans thought the Browns defense was on a torrid pace in terms of forcing turnovers. A lot of fans thought that pace would slow, but the Browns have continued to force turnovers.If someone were to ask me how I thought the Chiefs could lose to the Browns, one answer I’d give is that the Chiefs somehow turned the ball over a ton.It’s not typical for an Andy Reid team to commit a ton of turnovers or interceptions (note, this is an old tweet, but it’s still applicable):Turnovers could become a problem in the Chiefs/Browns game, but given Reid’s history with taking care of the ball, I don’t think the Chiefs choke the game away by coughing up the ball.However, I would be surprised if Mahomes left this game without throwing at least one interception.3. Browns shouldn’t pass the ballI really don’t see any reason the Browns should pass the ball much on Sunday.If the Browns choose to pass the ball, they’re playing to one of the Chiefs’ strengths and one of the Browns’ weaknesses.On the flip side, the Browns have a clear advantage in the run game.Every single sign leading up to this game points to the Browns needing to run the ball if they want to have any success. Gregg Williams is a defensive-minded coach, and running the ball will help his defense.I will be shocked if the Browns don’t run the ball 20-plus times on Sunday. If the Browns choose to pass the ball more frequently Justin Houston Color Rush Jersey , they’ll be playing right into the Chiefs strength while playing from their weakness.4. Third downOffensively, the Browns have had issues (more on that later.)The Chiefs defense should have a chance to improve their third-down numbers on Sunday — specifically on third and medium to long.The Browns haven’t been too bad on third down so far this season, with their obvious strengths coming in third-and-short or third-and-long situations.The Chiefs have been strong in third-and-long and third-and-medium situations, but have been average in third-and-short situations.Long story short, the Chiefs defense should do well on third down, and the Chiefs offense should do well in third-and-medium situations. Third-and-short and long situations could be a challenge for the Chiefs offense on Sunday given the Browns’ stats.5. Browns offenseThe Browns offense is not playing well in 2018.This week should be an opportunity for the Chiefs defense to improve.Currently, the Chiefs defense is allowing 6.3 yards per play, which is the fifth-worst mark in the NFL. However, if you’ve been paying attention to the Chiefs defense over the past several weeks they have been slowly improving.This week, against the Browns’ 4.9 yards-per-play offense is another opportunity for the Chiefs defense to improve.Will the Chiefs defense take a step forward on Sunday and continue their defensive improvement? If I had to make a bet, my answer would be yes.