Idk, I've seen Mahomes step into throws in the face of contact several times.
He has kind of a lazy quality about his approach to his footwork that lends to him often throwing off his back foot regardless of whether there's a defender approaching or not and I think that tendency makes it look like he's shying away from contact more often than he really is.
I agree.
And I think that is overblown.
All qbs have instances where they throw awkwardly or off their back foot or their mechanics fail when pressure is in their face.
I think trubisky has the best mechanics of the group by a mile and I literally can pull up video of Trubisky's mechanics failing and him throwing off his back foot when he's pressured.
The thing I like about Mahomes though is that despite the mechanics he is able to make good accurate throws from awkward positions. The throws I'm talking about from Mitch he misses his targets consistently when his mechanics fail and he's pressured.
Mechanics fail for all players at times. It's the nature of sports. But the special players can often make plays from positions that other guys can't.
Easy comparison for me is basketball. Good scorers don't always use great technique. Because defenders don't always allow them too. But when you can get your shot off in non traditional ways you excel.
Football example from another position is JJ watt. If you're teaching Dline fundamentals he's a hard guy to watch and learn from. Romo, Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Big Ben...all of those guys have some untraditional approaches to the game whether it's from a mental, physical or both standpoint.
That's why a lot of the best players aren't always the best front office guys or coaches...because some of the things they do can't be taught.
Now, you have to balance that with good decision making and having a feel for when is the best time to get away with that.
Mahomes is my favorite in this class and I'm not really a fan of Watson at all or Kiser.
I'll back up my opinions with what I see and I'll point it out on film but I think when you scout players you always have to have an open mind you could be wrong. Lots of factors besides play on the field and even play on the field can be misjudged. Heck even guys that show NFL success one year can look bad the next year.
But when I see mahomes I think he's about as good of a value at qb as you could hope for where we'll be picking if he makes it there. If it's not him or Trubisky then I don't think I even want one of the other guys slotted to go first round and I haven't looked at the next group of guys except peterman and he looks like Savage to me who I never wanted in the first place.