Patrick Mahomes – the man behind the Kansas City Chiefs‘ growing legacy– officially turned 31 on Thursday, 17th September. As the Chiefs Kingdom celebrates his birthday, this felt like the perfect time to take a look at the 698-mile journey that brought a young gunslinger from Texas Tech to Kansas City and everything else that followed.

Mahomes was already going to be KC’s quarterback. That’s where he wanted to go, and he did everything he could to make that happen, with a little help from Matt Nagy. Back in 2017, Nagy was the offensive coordinator in year 2 with the Chiefs, with a long-established history with head coach Andy Reid from their days with the Philadelphia Eagles. That year, the Chiefs needed a quarterback. Nagy, who already liked Mahomes, decided to do something about it.

The Nagy Effect

When Mahomes came to Kansas City on one of his top 30 visits, the biggest challenge was impressing Andy Reid. But thanks to Matt Nagy, it wasn’t a challenge. In 2022, when Mahomes dropped in on the New Heights podcast, he revealed everything that happened on that visit, and the day leading up to it.

“The first day that I met Coach Reid was at the facility. We had the meetings, like the top 30 visits. So, I was in there for like five hours. He’s just going through plays, going through plays. I’m going to just give you all the inside scoop: Matt Magy, who was the offensive coordinator then, he really liked me. So he gave me the plays that they were gonna go over the night before. So of course, I crushed the meeting. I stayed up all night studying those plays.”

And that’s how Mahomes left his mark on Big Red. But impressing the head coach was just one part of the puzzle. Plenty of other teams needed help at quarterback and wanted a developmental prospect with a high ceiling. Now, the challenge was to get KC to draft him high in the first round.

The Draft Shuffle

Of all the teams Patrick Mahomes had visited before the 2017 Draft, a few had already told him, “Hey, if you’re there, we’re gonna take you.” But Mahomes wanted to be a Chief. He’d impressed Coach Reid thanks to Matt Nagy’s inside information, and that’s when Mahomes decided to return the favor.

“I kind of gave a little inside info to the Chiefs,” Mahomes said on that same podcast. “I was like, ‘Hey, if y’all let me go…’ At the time, I didn’t know about the Saints, but I was like, ‘If y’all let me go 12 or below, I’m gonna get drafted by someone else.’ So, I gave the Chiefs a little bit of info on that because I wanted to be there.”

Now, the Chiefs were sitting with the 27th overall pick in that draft. Equipped with Mahomes’ inside information, the Chiefs called the Buffalo Bills, who held the No. 10 pick, and gave up their future for the present.

Picks 27 and 91 of the 2017 draft went to Buffalo, alongside the 2018 first-rounder. The Chiefs moved up and drafted Mahomes 10th overall, making him the first first-round QB the franchise bet on since 1983. But it was still a long time before Big Reid would let him start a game, as evidenced by his post-draft assessment of Mahomes.

“Right now Patrick is not absolutely ready to play,” Coach Reid had said at the time. “He’s got some work to do. We have to be patient with him. He’s definitely not a finished product right now. But he has tremendous upside. We think he’ll fit into this offense very well. He’s a good person. He’s intelligent. He’s got great skill. I just think he’ll be a great Kansas City Chief when it’s all said and done.”

A decade after those words, Andy Reid stands corrected.

The Quarterback and the Dynasty

Patrick Mahomes’ first start came in his rookie season itself, but there was nothing on the line back then. The Chiefs had already secured a playoff berth under Alex Smith, and there was no reason to put him at risk for a Week 17 clash with the Denver Broncos. So Mahomes got the starting role for that game, and responded by completing 22-of-35 passes for 284 yards and a pick in a 27-24 victory.

The Chiefs couldn’t go past the Wild Card against the Tennessee Titans that postseason. That same January, Smith got traded to the Washington Redskins, and Mahomes got the starting job. The rest, as we all know, is football history.

In his first game as QB1, against the Los Angeles Chargers, Mahomes was unstoppable. On the way to a 38-28 win, he went 15-of-27 for 256 yards and 4 touchdowns while taking just a single sack. The Chiefs had found their franchise quarterback.

A 12-4 season later, Mahomes led his squad to the conference championship, where he ultimately succumbed to the New England Patriots in a 37-31 overtime loss. But that defeat became the foundational stone on which a dynasty was born.

In 2019, Mahomes paved the way to his second AFC Championship game and brought the Chiefs their first Super Bowl win in 50 years. The drought officially dispelled, the Chiefs – and Mahomes by extension – became the one to beat. Four more Super Bowl appearances – and two wins – have followed since then.

In 127 career starts so far (their 2026 Week 1 victory included), Mahomes has a 96-31-0 record, 20 fourth-quarter comebacks, and 24 game-winning drives in regular seasons alone, cementing the Grim Reaper as one of the greatest modern-day quarterbacks in the NFL. And from the looks of things, he still has plenty left in the tank.

In the season opener against the Broncos (the same franchise he faced once in his rookie season), Mahomes completed 15-of-27 passes for 184 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a pick while taking 2 sacks. In that 31-10 blowout, he also rushed for 23 yards on seven carries and scored another touchdown. If there had been any questions about his knee after he tore his ACL & LCL last season, those questions don’t exist anymore.

Now, a 31-year-old Patrick Mahomes gets ready to host the Indianapolis Colts with the loudest fanbase in football cheering for him. Looking back, none of this might have happened if not for Matt Nagy, the Bills, and, of course, Mahomes himself.