KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Sometimes even the most detail-oriented and meticulous football coaches must let go and let good. Yes, you read that correctly. Let good, not let God. Let good, as in place faith in a uniquely talented player and be willing to accept the outcome.
Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning made the audible a near science, a choreographed set of buzzwords, hand signals and gesticulations at the line of scrimmage, all of which allowed him to alter the play that had been sent in from the sideline.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has already shown an extraordinary knack of a very different type. A few times per game, he takes a designed play in a different direction or adds a unique twist, and he does it after the ball has been snapped.
The magnificent mayhem of Mahomes _ his freewheeling, run-around improvisational style reminiscent of a backyard pickup game _ captivates spectators, lends itself to the "gunslinger" label many pundits placed on him before he'd even been drafted and forms a large part of the charm of the 23-year-old first-year starter.
"He does a lot of that natural," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "Keeping his eyes focused down the field and being able to throw with accuracy is a gift. (Quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy) work on it every day. That's something that you can go through with drills and work on it, but he has a natural knack for it too."
That playmaking ability played a central role in the Chiefs' victory over the Denver Broncos earlier this month on Monday Night Football in Denver. The relentless pass rush of the Broncos and the myriad of coverages and blitzes put the Chiefs' offense in a holding pattern early in that game.
Then a combination of Mahomes' improvising and offensive adjustments took over. Mahomes threw for 192 of his 304 passing yards while outside of the pocket, and he led the Chiefs to a come-from-behind win after having trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter on the road.
Sometimes the improvisation comes in much more subtle forms than Mahomes scrambling around the field. Sometimes it's as simple as adjusting on the fly to a defense doing something unexpected.
"When we got the first down on the third-and-long in the big red zone area, they kind of did a different coverage and Tyreek (Hill) sat it down a little bit earlier and I could put the ball on him a little bit earlier," Mahomes said of this past week's game against the Bengals. "Stuff like that _ when you can just execute the game plan when it's a look that you're not expecting _ I feel like is the favorite thing we do in the game."
Mahomes has set an NFL record with 2,507 passing yards through his first eight starts, including one start last season, which bests marks posted by Kurt Warner (2,164), Brett Favre (1,898), Manning (1,873) and Dan Marino (1,775). That's along with an NFL-record 22 touchdown passes in his first eight games.
Kafka, the Chiefs' quarterback coach, estimated that about half of what Mahomes does on the field is play design and half is inherent ability and athleticism. Any way you slice it, they get the "best of both worlds," according to Kafka.
"Historically, Coach Reid has always had a mobile-type quarterback, a quarterback who can kind of get out and run," Kafka said. "Pat has that ability. So when he's able to extend plays, that's part of the offense. I think it creates some difficulty and puts some pressure on the defense when a quarterback can get out and run and get a first down with his feet or extend the play and throw it down field."
Count Broncos head coach Vance Joseph, a former college quarterback, among those who've seen their team tormented by Mahomes' ability to transcend a play design.
The left-handed pass to convert on third down _ the one that seemingly played on a non-stop loop for the better part of a week _ came at Joseph's expense. Mahomes also threw back across his body for crucial completions, and turned plays into scramble drills while he danced around pass rushers.
"There's no counter for a great playmaker like Mahomes has become," Joseph said. "Your plan has to be to trap and contain him and keep him where you want him to be, but you have no plan for when he breaks the pocket. That's just going to be effort. That's going to be want-to. I mean, he's outrun most of our big guys and he's shaken off most of our pass rushers. There's no exact plan when he breaks the pocket but to grind and try to get him on the ground as quick as possible."
Bieniemy, Joseph's former college teammate, has the task of coordinating an offense around a quarterback that can take any given play and turn it into freeform football.
Coaches like Bieniemy devote hours to developing game plans, dissecting tendencies and strategies of opponents, anticipating how they'll react to various personnel groups, formations and plays.
So what's it like to invest all of that on a weekly basis and then entrust it to a player who might go beyond the play design?
"I was blessed and fortunate to coach Adrian Peterson," Bieniemy said. "You coach 'em up. You detail it. You tell them exactly what you want and how you want it done. You know what, to the best of their ability they're going to do everything you ask them to do. Now, there are certain skill sets that take over that, hey, they've just been blessed with a natural gift. When that natural gift takes over, you just say, okay, next play.
"The beauty of it is you approach it the same. You coach that player that same (whether) he's the first on the depth chart or last on the depth chart, understanding that due to his unique skill set, his unique talent, you're going to take the good as well as the bad because sometimes he's going to make a tremendous play. Sometimes he may make a mistake _ but that's OK because we know what he's trying to do."
