Freak Play Friday: Patrick Mahomes. 2017 preseason. THAT throw.

(Plus, a list of the top reactions to it)

Look, it’s Friday, I’m busy, you’re busy, we’re all busy… but let’s face it, there’s never been a better time than right this moment to talk about THAT preseason throw by Mahomes in 2017.

You know which throw I’m talking about. The one that broke the rules as to what quarterbacks are supposed to be capable of. The one that served as a warning shot to the rest of the NFL that Mahomes was going to be taking their lunch money. The one that broke the brain of not just Chiefs fans, but Chiefs players as well.

If you were a Chiefs fan in 2017, you remember where you were during the 4th preseason game. It was one of the most anticipated moments in decades for Chiefs fans. That’s simultaneously absolutely true and profoundly sad. Chiefs fans were desperately hoping that Patrick Mahomes would be everything the organization appeared to believe he would, and seeing him start a game (even meaningless preseason action) felt like the moment we could see more than just a quick glance. Anyone who could tune in, did tune in.

I was attending a district assembly of my district’s church leadership at the time. Because of this, I had to jump through about 20 hoops to be able to watch the game live. But jump through them I did, and even managed to make arrangements to watch the game on a projector with a fellow Chiefs fan. And to this day, he and I talk about that game and “that throw.”

The down and distance, game situation, etc don’t matter one bit. The way the drive ended is totally irrelevant. All that matters is the throw.

In the blink of an eye Mahomes transformed one of the most mundane (for non-fanatics) exercises in sports (the NFL’s 4th preseason game) into must-see television. He took a moment that meant nothing and turned it into everything for Chiefs fans.

The unbelievable nature of this throw cannot be captured without a full view of the all-22, which was immediately shown as the commentators tried to suppress their amazement.

I wore out my eyes counting and re-counting the air yards on this play, thinking I had to have made a mistake. 50 yards in the air off the back foot while on the run and a microsecond from taking a massive hit? That’s impossible. There’s no way. But like the bumblebee, Patrick Mahomes cared not for the laws of physics.

We’re now several years into the Patrick Mahomes experience, and we’ve seen him do all sorts of incredible things. But this remains one of the best plays he’s ever made.

There are a few non-obvious observations to make outside of "holy crap” that people might have missed. The first is that Demarcus Robinson was starting to head back towards the line of scrimmage rather than running straight to the sideline. I assume he did so because he didn’t think there was any way Mahomes could get the ball to him given the situation. This forced Robinson to make a quick adjustment and start sprinting down the field again when he realized that Mahomes could, indeed, make that throw.

Another non-obvious note is that despite the inherent riskiness of such a tough throw, when looking at the rest of the field there weren’t necessarily any “better” options. The middle of the field had a tight end with separation, but he had 2 faster defenders on him who could likely close the distance on any throw, and was back to Mahomes’ left (which would require more “across the body” motion and make a throw riskier).

While some might argue that the best decision here is to just throw the ball completely out of reach, Mahomes (in a preview of something he’s shown an aptitude for since) did something better: He made a throw that was far enough away from the defender to carry no risk, but at least gave his receiver a shot at making a great play. That’s essentially taking the same amount of risk as a throwaway, but with a chance at a big play.

Something else that makes this play special is that there were multiple fun, comical, and telling reactions to it that got captured on camera. Let’s look at some of the best.

First is Kevin Dodd, the pass rusher who laid a big hit on Mahomes as he threw the ball.

(Shout-out to whatever employee was facing the crowd who wound up right in the shot here. That man is doing his job well and showing focus most of us could never dream of)

This shows just how hard Mahomes was hit on the play, making the throw itself all the more remarkable as he had no way to follow through and needed serious mental toughness to take a shot like that. One might fear Mahomes would be hurt.

Instead, though, it was Dodd who ended up on the ground being examined by trainers. I won’t show that because it seems in poor taste, but he turned out to be fine, which makes it an incredibly funny turn of events.

(Hey. Hey you. If you’re reading this, enjoying it and haven’t subscribed, I can absolutely promise you that you’ll enjoy the dozens of pieces of content I’ve put out here over the last month. You can subscribe for 12 bucks a year forever, or give it a try for a month for 2 dollars. Do it. You will not regret it)

Besides Dodd, the most obvious reaction to note is Marcus Peters. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that his reaction here was absurdly fun, bouncing down the field like a middle-schooler celebrating his friend dunking for the first time.

But there are a number of other excellent reactions. With 2 different views, let’s look at some of them.

-Watch Chris Jones near the end as it begins to zoom in. He has a the facial expression and the body language of someone who can’t process what he’s looking at.

-Ramik Wilson, who I always appreciated and I often wonder about (how would he have looked in a non-Bob-Sutton-led defense?), was the first besides Peters to recognize what had happened and start celebrating by raising a hand in the air.

-Dee Ford (at least that’s 55, and looks like him in a blur. I couldn’t confirm from other angles), sitting on the bench, was literally not looking at the play and didn’t react. Feel free to insert awareness jokes at your leisure.

We also have a wonderful shot that looks into the soul of Chiefs fans everywhere, despite the facial expressions coming from members of the team.

On the left, we have Terrance Smith representing the group I’ll call “the unsure Chiefs fans.” These are the people who didn’t have strong feelings about Mahomes as a potential franchise quarterback, and perhaps didn’t know as much about him as they would have liked. This was the “holy crap, did I just watch CGI in real life” moment for them as their brain tried to process what they’d seen.

On the right in a red cap (is that Eric Fisher? I’m pretty sure it’s Eric Fisher), we have the bald-faced joy and “oh man, the league is in so much trouble” that this moment contained for people who had already anointed Mahomes as the next great quarterback. Those people were seeing their dreams come to life in front of them. Yes, that was me. And yes, I’ll forever boast that I knew what Mahomes would be.

There are a few more excellent reactions in another view.

-The normally stoic Justin Houston with the “OOOOHHHHHH” as he hopped in the air is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on a sideline.

-Daniel Sorensen and Frank Zombo, a pair of vets who have seen it all, are twins in their open-mouthed expressions of amazement.

-Someone on the far left (who I can’t fully see) gets some really, really serious air considering he’s just jumping straight off the ground without bending his knees.

And finally, Alex Smith. Look, you can feel however you want about Alex as a quarterback (the correct answer in my opinion is that he’s a good quarterback with a specific skillset who has had some really tough luck), but you can learn a lot about Alex as a person and teammate in this clip.

Alex knew the writing was on the wall when the Chiefs drafted Mahomes. However, he was a sharp enough guy to know that a lot would depend not only on his own performance during 2017, but just how good Mahomes looked in limited action. His future job security and where he (and his family) lived were going to be majorly impacted by whatever Mahomes did. Literally no one on earth (including opponents of the Chiefs) had more reason to root against Patrick Mahomes than Alex Smith.

Instead, look at the excitement on Smith’s face as he starts to cheer a great play by his teammate and a younger player he was mentoring. You can’t fake that. He was rooting hard for the kid, even though he knew what it would mean for him. That’s the type of person Alex Smith is, and Chiefs fans should never, ever forget that.

Looking back at this play, one could argue that the first football miracle Patrick Mahomes pulled off was making a meaningless game mean everything.

Now THAT’S a freak play.