Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes on the off-field benefits to his throwing camp
Monday was the first day of the Chiefs’ Organized Team Activities, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes wasn’t at the facility.
In fact, when he met with the media Monday on a Zoom call, Mahomes answered questions in front of a pool table. Mahomes once again is spending time in Texas working with the Chiefs’ pass catchers and quarterbacks.
But it’s not as if the players are simply doing their own thing, because they have talked with Andy Reid and the Chiefs coaching staff this week. Mahomes shared Monday how a typical day goes at his camp during this first week of OTAs.
“In the morning, we get a workout in, just kind of get guys moving,” Mahomes said. “There’s therapy there so guys can get whatever warmup they need to do if they don’t want to get an actual full workout and they (just) want to get some work in to get themselves ready to run routes.
“Then we get the routes in and right after that – it’s like two to three times a week depending on week and the plan with the coaches. Then we meet with the coaches at 12 o’ clock, so it’s pretty good, you kind of get everybody in and out before 2 o’ clock whenever the meetings end. But it gets good work in.”
That time together allows Mahomes to share what he’s looking for in the receivers and they can work on timing and routes.
When the work is done in the mid-afternoon, then it’s time to play. Mahomes said off-the-field time together is important, which brings us back to that pool table in the background of the conference call.
“I think what’s the best thing about Kansas City is it’s a family. The whole team is a family and so I try to get those guys together,” Mahomes said last month at the 101 Awards. “Not just me and the guys, but really the guys together. They’re the guys that are together every single day in that receiving room, and you want that receiving room to get the best out of each other.
“And so we go to dinners, we go to lunches, we kind of hang out. I try to take them to different sporting events and I’m trying to build up that family atmosphere that we have in Kansas City.”
At least 10 players have joined Mahomes in Texas for the workouts and he said they are not content about winning the Super Bowl. They all want another championship, even though some players joined the Chiefs in the offseason.
That’s life in the NFL, as rosters change each season. Mahomes likes getting to know his new teammates and spend time with the veterans away from the Chiefs facility.
“I think what I find most enjoyable is just building those relationships with the guys,” Mahomes said Monday. “Every single team is different and just getting the guys down here and seeing them outside the building, trying to do different things, trying to get dinners, whatever it is, you get to meet the guys. I think that’s what brings a team closer together and so that’s something that I enjoy especially about this part of the year.
“And then like you’re talking about you win the Super Bowl, and it’s awesome but it makes the offseason shorter and so trying to make sure I get time to myself and my family, that’s something that is important to me, and so I still intertwine that with just keeping my body in the right shape so that I can go out there and try to quest to get the threepeat.”
