KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wants to cringe when he looks at video of some of the passes he tried early in his career. Mahomes looks at decisions he made in his first few games as a starter and shakes his head. Now 25, he refers to that 2017 and 2018 version of himself as "young Patrick."
That's one sign Mahomes is growing up as a quarterback, but another is his decreasing interception rate. In 2018, his first full season as a starter, Mahomes threw an interception on 2.1% of his pass attempts, which was 15th best in the NFL.
Last year he threw a pick on 1% of his throws, which was third in the league. This season, he has thrown one interception on a league-best 0.4% of his passes. He's still on pace to throw 42 touchdown passes and for more than 4,600 yards.
"Earlier in my career there are some throws I wouldn't have made [this season] because they were dumb decisions at the time," Mahomes said. "There were some throws I hope I still do make. It's kind of playing with that fine line of being as aggressive as you possibly can but not being overly aggressive. I try to look back on every experience and learn from it. I think there's a lot of positives along with some negatives that I can learn from.
"It's a battle that I have with my nature. I want to throw it and take the risk every single time. But games like [recently against the Denver Broncos] when we were up a lot of points, you've got to realize you don't have to take that risk whenever your defense is playing like they are and special teams is doing what they do."
Mahomes' big pass plays were down until Sunday's 35-9 win over the New York Jets. He had his second career game with 400-plus passing yards and five touchdowns and had five completions of more than 25 yards.
Mahomes had only 11 completions of 25 or more yards in the first seven games. Instead of forcing throws into coverage, he was mostly content to take shorter passes that opposing defenses were offering.
"He's fine with that," offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said. "If those guys are going to play in the back end and play deep, he's the first one to tell you, 'You know what? They're not covering them [on shorter routes]. Everybody's playing deep so I'm going to find an open man [underneath].'
"He's a gunslinger. He wants to go out there and show exactly what he can do. But ... he's doing a better job of taking what is given. [Defensive opponents] are playing far beyond what we expected sometimes. One thing he's doing, he's just finding the open guy. Those short- to medium-range [passes], we've got some guys that can catch and turn it up and make some special things happen. That just comes with maturity. It also comes with a growth process in understanding what we're doing but also understand how teams are lining up and playing against us. So kudos to Pat. I'm very proud of where he is right now."
Mahomes' QBR (85.4) and passer rating (115.0) are the highest of his career, another indication he's having his best NFL season.
"You look at the quarterback rating and that and it's always high for him," coach Andy Reid said. "He's doing a great job there, really managing everything, and I'm proud of the progress that he's made in so many areas. But I don't think he worries about all that. He's OK if the run game works. As long as we're winning, he's real good with that. And he's still going to end up with ... the [big] numbers."
Opponents have tried various tactics against Mahomes and the Chiefs since he became their starter. Occasionally a strategy had enough success to have some staying power but eventually Mahomes and the Chiefs have found a way to beat it.
"Every year it seems like we're getting a new scheme or new ways defenses are trying to go about playing us and playing against us," Mahomes said before the Jets game. "So for us, it's about being patient now. Being patient with the run game, being patient with the short-passing game and keep taking what is there. If we're going to get these 12- to 14-play drives and we're still scoring touchdowns, they're just as effective and for us whatever the defense presents to us, we're going to go against in the best way to have success.
"It kind of goes in different phases. If you look through my career, at least, especially the beginning for my career, there was a lot of zone coverage and then it became a lot of pressure. Pressure on me and trying to get the ball out of my hands to see if I could pick it up. Last year it started off with zone, then became a lot of press and man coverage and this year, it's kind of been deeper zones and not letting us get free releases off the ball, but still playing that zone coverage. Our team is doing a great job of adjusting every single year and making those adjustments quickly to have success and I'm sure we'll be presented with different stuff as the year goes on and we're going to take from what we've learned and have success."