National Football League

Patrick Mahomes is working on a trick throw that will one-up the no-look pass

Published Feb. 9, 2023 9:06 p.m. ET

PHOENIX — We've reached the point where Patrick Mahomes throws a no-look pass and no one takes note.

It’s sort of like when pro skateboarder Tony Hawk pulled off the 900-degree aerial spin and, months later, there were other people doing it. And then skateboarders were doing it all the time. The magic was there, but the fanfare diminished.

Not long after someone landed a 900 and completed a no-look pass, everyone was thinking about what else could be done. Everyone, including Patrick Mahomes.

The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is always cooking up ridiculousness. Not only does he embrace the opportunity to draw up elaborately silly trick plays, but he also loves messing around with different ways to throw the ball.

A no-look toss? Been there. Done that.

A left-handed pass? He’s done it.

Underhand throw? Obviously. That was how he scored his first touchdown.

Mahomes needs a new move. He did his 900. Then his 1080. Now folks are waiting for him to pull off his 1260.

And I have a pretty good idea of what that will look like: a behind-the-back pass.

"For sure gonna happen at some point in the game," Mahomes said last week on an appearance on First Things First on FOX Sports 1. "I'm not gonna say it's gonna happen in the Super Bowl, but I actually do it in practice a good amount. I throw it in and completed it probably like 80% to 90% of the time, but I'm a little too scared still to do it in the game."

Every time Mahomes does it in practice, tight end Travis Kelce responds: "Do it in a game."

When Kelce was asked about the throw’s biggest supporter, he began to laugh.

"I wonder who that is," Kelce said.

Hint: it’s him.

"I'm a supporter of Pat just doing the craziest stuff possible," the Chiefs tight end said. "So I'm all for him throwing it behind his back — over his head. He's got to give it no look. Something like that. However he has to get the ball to somebody, he's gonna do it. So I don't see it happening anytime soon — the behind-the-back pass — but if it does happen, I'm sure it will be electric."

Everyone says Mahomes is the master of improvisation. I wrote about it this week. But I now have to admit that I’m wrong. It merely looks like improv. His backyard-football style of play is practiced. Careful. Intentional. He doesn’t unveil trick passes willy-nilly. He doesn’t do anything in games that he hasn’t drilled extensively in practices.

The key to Mahomes’ latest trick pass was not easy to unveil. How and when might he use the behind-the-back pass? Mahomes and his teammates were cagey. The QB doesn’t want defenders to know it's coming, because that defeats the purpose of a surprising trick throw.

The behind-the-back pass seems to come out most when Mahomes is rolling right and a pass-catcher is trailing the QB in the flat and a defender is cutting off the throwing lane. Rather than turning to throw across his body, he flips it behind his back to the nearby teammate. We've also seen him use it as a pitch on option plays at practice. And then there have been ridiculous downfield throws where he vaults the ball 20 yards from behind his back.

"It’s like you're playing a game of H-O-R-S-E and you see somebody come up with something that's just like, ‘How do you think of that?’ That's him," Chiefs quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy said Thursday. "So the behind-the-back thing — that's like shooting a free throw for him. That’s simple."

Nagy later corrected himself: "Simple for him. Hard for us."

This is exactly how it went with the no-look pass, according to receivers coach Joe Bleymaier. Mahomes snuck it into a practice session. And everyone did a double take.

"Did he just pull the no look off? That was really effective. Is he going to do that in a game?" Bleymaier remembered everyone saying.

As Mahomes begins to work on the latest trick pass, he has been quietly methodical.

"He'll break it out and everyone was just kind of like, ‘Did he just behind the back that and put it on the spot?’" Bleymaier said. "And we’ll be like, ‘Is he gonna do that in the game?’ And we haven't seen it, but it's that same type of trajectory. It's coming. He's just got to figure out the right timing and he knows that you get one chance at that one and it better work."

That’s the thing about Mahomes. He is up there with the most electric quarterbacks in the history of the sport. He is a talent show on a football field. He takes insane risks. But that doesn’t mean he allows himself to make mistakes in games.

Mahomes remains one of the most efficient passers among quarterbacks through six years of their career. Mahomes is third in completion percentage (66.3%) behind Deshaun Watson (67%) and Dak Prescott (66%) among QB with at least 15,000 passing yards in their first six seasons.

The Chiefs QB has a childish obsession with the game. But his professionalism and intellect is what allows these trick passes to happen. Because he’s not allowed to mess up. If he botches one of these trick passes, he’ll hear from coach Andy Reid. And the flashy play will get banned from Mahomes’ repertoire. The Chiefs QB can’t break out the throw until it’s absolutely perfect — and he also has to wait for the exact right moment. It’s a situational throw, after all. Mahomes will probably only use it when he can afford to burn a down — and when he’s absolutely certain an opponent won’t intercept the ball. That’s how he’s made these trick passes work through the years with staggering efficiency — by making sure he doesn’t create a disaster.

"I have my full trust in Patrick. He can do whatever he wants back there and yeah, I'm not gonna be the one to get mad at him. So yeah, he's made these plays happen time and time again. He proves he can, so I have no issue with that," center Creed Humphrey said.

Even Reid doesn't have many issues with Mahomes' electric and eccentric presence on the field. As much as it looks like Mahomes is completely out of control, he's just the opposite. He's simply doing something he's done hundreds of times. He's doing something that's easy (for him). And that's why he knows he'll get away with it in a game.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @McKennAnalysis.

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