The same people who claim O’Brien wanted Mahomes conveniently forget that going into the draft, there were questions about Mahomes‘ gunslinger attitude, his turnovers, ability to play under center, read coverages, not going through his progressions, decision making, leaving the pocket too soon and even his accuracy and inconsistent mechanics.
Even during his first training camp, Mahomes was throwing INTs all over the place. I find it revisionist history to claim O’Brien wanted Mahomes. I’m more likely to believe, he wanted Trubisky than Watson or Mahomes.
If O’Brien has to interview for another job, I doubt he will list, “I wanted to draft Mahomes”. Instead, I would bet he would say, “I drafted Watson and had him producing at historical pace and top 5 QB with only 35 games of experience”
Its pretty much common knowledge amongst those in the know that OB preferred Mahomes over both Trubisky and Watson.
From what I understand of that situation - Smith didn't have a preference and wasn't willing to pony up draft capital to get one or the other , rather he'd take the one that was left,
I do believe that the consensus in the building at the time was that Mahomes would be the one remaining at the time they picked - until Andy Reid threw a monkey wrench into that equation - they were pretty much set at QB with Smith …. no one expected them to make that jump and it was possible the Texans would have their pick between the two.
Smith's philosophy on use of draft capital on the QB position seems to back this up.
During the entire time Smith was GM they spent only a 7th in 08 , a 5th in 11 and a 4th in 14 on the position aside from Watson over a decade.
In 2017 he was given a mandate by ownership "Draft a 1st round QB".
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