Speaking to local reporters via Zoom, the three-time Super Bowl champion shed some light on his mindset for next season.
On Wednesday, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes spoke to local media members for the first time since the club’s Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
As he has done since the pandemic, Mahomes is currently hosting teammates in his home state of Texas — and early signs suggest the vibes are trending in the right direction.
Mahomes said his practice regimen includes therapy in the morning, meeting virtually with coaches, and then applying the concepts they learn on the football field.
“Everything looks great right now,” said Mahomes. “Getting the guys back healthy, as far as Rashee [Rice] and having Hollywood [Brown] fully healthy and Xavier [Worthy] in Year 2. I think the offense has a chance to be really, really good. It’s just about keeping building.”
Rice and Brown lost most of the 2024 season due to injury, so naturally, there is high anticipation for their bounce-back campaigns. Mahomes says he isn’t sure how much Rice will be able to participate in organized team activities (OTAs), but it will be nice to have a full, healthy trio when the 2025 season begins.
“I’m excited to kind of have these guys again,” he added. “We’ve had a lot of turnover in the receiving room, and it seems like the core group will be back in its entirety. So the goal is to try to build on it and get even better and try to get back to some of the explosive passing plays that we’ve done in years past.
“That receiving room in general — they’re all really good friends and want each other to have success,” said Mahomes. “I think it can be one of the better receiver rooms in this league with the guys that we have in it.”
Mahomes said he wants to improve his pocket progression rather than rely on assumptions about coverage. The Super Bowl against the Eagles made for an awful night, but in “garbage time,” Mahomes found ways to air it out to Worthy, specifically.
The then-rookie finished with a game-high 157 receiving yards.
“If you look at the only real positive I think from the Super Bowl, it was the second half — me just kind of getting back to, ‘We’ve got to throw the ball deep.’
“We have to push the envelope, and you saw Xavier making some big plays down the field. So, trying to take the positives away from that and from the rest of the season as well. We’ve got the guys. It’s about me trusting them, making the throws down the field, and letting them make plays.”
The quarterback wants to carry that energy into the 2025 offseason and regular season to follow.
“I think if we can get back to hitting some of those [deep] throws — we preached about this last offseason — it opens up the rest of the offense.
“That helps the run game, the medium pass game, everything. So we want to get back to that. Defenses are starting to creep up a little bit more — and [forcing] us to get back to the deep throws, we have to be versatile enough to do both: hit the deep shots and hit the underneath stuff. That’s when we’ll be at our best.”
Early this offseason, many diehard Chiefs fans quickly noticed that Mahomes opted to trade his signature shaggy hair for a shorter, sharper look. He had hinted at cutting his hair during the Netflix series “Quarterback” but ultimately waited until after last season’s final game.
“I’d wanted to do it for a while, but it was kind of one of those superstitions. I kept winning the Super Bowl — which is a good thing — but I didn’t want to cut the hair while I was doing it.
“I told everybody during the season that win or lose — if we win three in a row, or if we lose — I’m getting a haircut. Like, that’s enough. And I’m very excited.
“I’ve looked at some videos from last year, and I can’t believe all you guys let me keep that nappy hair for so long. I look way better now with the short hair, so I’ll be keeping this going forward.”
Mahomes is approaching 2025 with fresh eyes — and as many can relate, there’s nothing like a fresh haircut to aid in resetting the mindset.