Why the Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce connection is so unstoppable

KANSAS CITY LEADERS Tight end Travis Kelce’s run on third-and-3 in the third quarter of a Week 3 game against the Chicago Bears was supposed to take him into the back right corner of the end zone, but he saw the defense leave the middle uncovered.

So Kelce stopped there. That’s when quarterback Patrick Mahomes spotted him and handed the ball to Kelce for an easy 3-yard touchdown.

With thousands of throws and countless hours in the video room between them, Mahomes and Kelce made the game work even if it wasn’t how the Chiefs designed it.

“You’re talking about two guys that have instincts that not a lot of people have,” Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “There’s a balance, because sometimes when you watch tape with rookies or guys coming up, [they ask], ‘Why did Kelce do this or do that?’ Well, he has an innate ability to recognize defenses. It’s on another level. What’s crazier is that Pat knows it too.

“Sometimes we don’t even practice it. They just do it. … There are things in there, DNA-wise, between these two guys that a lot of people don’t have. They have this link.”

The connection began in 2018 when Mahomes became the Chiefs’ starter, and he’s one of the NFL’s all-time greats between a quarterback and tight end. Kelce has Mahomes’ 50 touchdowns, making them the fourth QB-TE duo to reach that mark. They are also fourth for a quarterback and tight end in catches (550) and yards (6,895).

Most of those catches, yards and touchdowns came from plays executed exactly the way coach Andy Reid designed them. But not at all.

“I’m doing my best to handle this thing like Coach Reid does,” Kelce said. “You want to be creative, but at the right time. … Coach Reid does a great job of working a lot to make these plays make sense for the quarterbacks, so you don’t want to stray too far from the script.

“All that creative stuff is fun. But for the most part, I would say about 99 percent of the time, I do what coach wants me to do.”

Things don’t always go so well when both actors improvise. Mahomes almost threw an interception against the New York Jets in Week 4 when Kelce stopped a route in the middle of the field and Mahomes threw it to where Kelce was heading.

But when it works, it can yield big results. During the 2021 AFC Divisional Round against the Buffalo Bills, Kelce told Mahomes he would change his route to create a seam in pass coverage on the Chiefs’ final offensive play of the fourth quarter as they jostled to get within range of the baskets.

Kelce’s 25-yard catch set up the field goal that sent the game into overtime. The Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl.

“He does a great job and every time he’s open, he’s not covered,” Mahomes said. “Coach Reid gives them freedom [that] if you’re open, stay there and don’t cover up and walk the course like we’ve walked it a thousand times in training. [Kelce] does a great job on this.

“It’s something you can’t take for granted. It’s almost like he’s playing Madden, like he can read the media coverage, stop at the windows, be open and be on the same page. wavelength than me at any time.”

Over a three-game stretch this season, Mahomes completed 28 consecutive passes to Kelce. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the odds of all 28 passes being completed based on the probability of completion were 1 in 3,000.

Stats like those are why Nagy said he gives this advice to young receivers coming to the Chiefs wanting a connection with Mahomes like Kelce’s: It’s going to take a long time, and in the meantime, don’t do what Kelce does. .

YOUNG RECEIVERS ARE NOT the only ones marveling at how Mahomes and Kelce connect. Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley saw his defense get beat repeatedly by both players.

In five games against the Chargers with Staley as head coach, Kelce has 40 catches, 640 yards and six touchdowns.

“He does everything at such a high level,” Staley said. “I think what’s difficult is just the chemistry he has with Patrick. It doesn’t matter what coverage – man, zone, matchup zone – it doesn’t matter. He just has a feel exceptional in the way to attack and beat leverage. When you have that type of feel in the passing game, it can open up when the play isn’t necessarily designed to go that way.

“Then he and Pat just have that eye contact, that chemistry of feeling the space and the zones and going for it. The other thing that Travis does such a good job of is running with the ball after the catch. He is one of the best tight ends ever played. Much respect for him.

Mahomes said even backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert, in his 12th NFL season but first with the Chiefs, asked him after the touchdown against the Bears why Mahomes goes off-script so often with Kelce with the desired results .

Gabbert said he’s seen other top passing combinations like Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Rodgers to Davante Adams work the same way, but not in the depth of Mahomes to Kelce.

In fact, Mahomes and Kelce have connected for more yards (5,598) and touchdowns (40) than any quarterback-receiver duo in the NFL since 2019, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs have 36 touchdowns, as do Kirk Cousins ​​and Adam Thielen. Cousins ​​and Justin Jefferson have the second-most yards over that span (5,348).

“Travis sees defenses like a quarterback, and he has that feeling that we see and he can see it as the play develops,” Gabbert said. “So that’s something that a lot of people on our team try to emulate, but you really can’t replicate it because of who he is as a player and the relationship he has with Pat throughout … They almost make it. It looks like basketball, and as a quarterback, it’s very nice that he’s always trying to get open to give us an open throw.

“I’m lucky to be here now and to be able to see it personally, because in [the past] you watch them on film, but you really didn’t know what was happening to know why. »

KELCE JOINED THE Chiefs in 2013, five years before Mahomes became a starter. A quarterback for a time at the University of Cincinnati, Kelce had a similar working relationship with Alex Smith, Mahomes’ predecessor at quarterback.

It didn’t take Mahomes and Kelce long to develop what they have today.

“It just took a few years to work with him,” Mahomes said. “Not only did I get a sense of how he ran routes, but he also got a sense of how I saw things, so just that combination of things, I think, developed this connection where we can kind of go off the radar screen and kind of develop stuff that’s not necessarily called.

Kelce has been a big supporter of Smith and said he wasn’t initially thrilled when the Chiefs traded him to Washington to free up room for Mahomes.

But his career has blossomed since Mahomes took over. The five best statistical seasons of Kelce’s career have come with Mahomes at quarterback, and he’s on pace for a sixth this season.

“Pat has the instinctive ability to do things that I’ve never seen anyone else do on a football field,” Kelce said. That’s where he stands out and he kind of shows his own personality in that regard. In terms of situational football, understanding the rules of the game, time management, all those things that Coach Reid is the guru, so is Pat. . [Their connection is a result of] being in the same meetings, understanding how Coach Reid does things and in training camps, having countless amounts of time to be able to go over all of those things.

The result is a touchdown like the touchdown against the Bears. Kelce saw it, Mahomes saw it, and they were confident it would work well, as it has for them many other times.

“I just kind of understand what he’s going to do, some things he’s not really supposed to do,” Mahomes said. “There were times in training where we were thinking about making a request for that when we got that request for him to run that route.

“I remember telling the coaches, ‘I don’t know why we need a call. He’s going to do it anyway.’ So of course he does it, and it’s a touchdown.”