Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been a perennial favorite among NFL MVP candidates ever since he came into the league, but last year he was mostly off the radar. His fourth-quarter Houdini tricks to get he Chiefs over the top were impressive, but a lot of Mahomes’ stats were so-so at best, especially by his own high standards. 

That’s changing fast, and the change is deliberate. Mahomes made a concerted effort to avoid the checkdowns that were frequent last year due to a subpar group of wide receivers, but now the quarterback has weapons, and he’s determined to use them. 

The quarterback gave an example of how those changes work recently in an article written by Jesse Newell of The Athletic, with the example coming from two weeks ago against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Mahomes saw receiver Tyquan Thornton running free downfield, but Thornton was the third read in Mahomes’ progression, and last year the quarterback says he never would have made it that far down his reads list. 

“In previous years, I would have never even looked over there to Tyquan,” Mahomes said this week, “because the coverage dictated that it was not going to be open.”

He took the shot, though, and the result was a 34-yard completion to Thornton. Mahomes has worked hard to create scenarios like this, and he says he was actually overanalyzing a lot of plays. 

“It’s like, ‘I know the coverage it is. I know this route’s not supposed to be open.’ So I would just move on,” Mahomes explained. “I went back and watched the film this last year, and I was like, ‘I can’t give (defenses) too much credit.'”

Revamping his process also allowed the quarterback to realize another important point: Defenders make mistakes. They might start out with zone responsibilities, for instance, but sometimes their instincts to abandon a zone kick in at the worst possible moment. 

“They’re going to be trying to make plays, just like I’m trying to make plays,” Mahomes said. “And so go through your progression, go through your read, simplify and just play fast. And I think that’s really helped me out this year.”

The other key to this change is simple. Knowing the plays and coverages in advance is one thing, but that’s not the only thing that makes them work. 

“It makes my job easier whenever you know that what you think before the play is going to happen happens,” Mahomes said, “and the guys get open.”