As often as people poke fun at the nine NFL teams that now-infamously passed on Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft, there are actually some NFL coaches and executives who were hoping – and expecting – that Mahomes would fall to them.
In a recent interview with Football Morning In America, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians revealed that he was “stunned” that the Chiefs selected Mahomes three picks ahead of his own team in that fateful draft. He said that he thought for that the Chiefs would pass on a quarterback since they had Alex Smith at the time and that Mahomes would fall to him.
“I was stunned,” Arians said. “I figured (the Chiefs) were a playoff team with a good quarterback in Alex Smith. I thought Pat was gonna fall to us.”
The Chiefs traded up with the Buffalo Bills on Draft Day in order to get Mahomes, proving just how badly they coveted him. Arians and the Cardinals wound up selecting Haason Reddick, who was solid but hardly remarkable for them during his four years with the team.
FMIA also reported that Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton told some people that his team also coveted Mahomes when he was head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2017. But the team was apparently unwilling to trade up and go get him for fear of insulting then-starter Drew Brees with such a move.
Arians would go on to be the only head coach to beat Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl thus far, while Payton reached the NFC Championship Game in 2018.