It's no secret that Patrick Mahomes has taken the NFL by storm in leading the Kansas City Chiefs to an 8-1 start. But how does the second-year quarterback fare in film study broken down by all-time NFL passing touchdown leader and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning? In his third installment of the ESPN+ show Detail, Manning pores over Mahomes' game tape from a Week 8 victory over the Denver Broncos.
You can watch the Mahomes episode here, and here are previous episodes featuring Matthew Stafford and Josh Rosen. But for those of you wanting a CliffsNotes version, here are some highlights of Manning's on Mahomes.
Manning has no idea what to call Mahomes
During the intro, Manning fumbles over what name to use for the second-year quarterback from Texas Tech, then decides that it doesn't actually matter: "We're going to take a look at Patrick Mahomes, Pat Mahomes, whatever you want to call him. Let's just call him 'hot quarterback on fire that's out there slinging it all over the place who has been a lot of fun to watch.'"
I personally think "Patrick" or "Pat" are easier to say, but Manning had 71,940 yards, 539 passing touchdowns and two Super Bowl rings, so we'll defer to him.
Manning doesn't do the option
Manning looks off the viewer by starting to analyze an option play Mahomes executed before showing some self-awareness and realizing that he, not the speediest of quarterbacks in his day, probably isn't the best guy to break down option plays.
Get Pereira and Blandino on the phone
In probably the funniest rant of the 26-minute episode, Peyton gets on his soapbox and criticizes the NFL for its discrepancy on assessing penalty yardage near the goal line.
"How come when we jump offsides, we have to go back five yards, but when the defense jumps, we only get half the distance? Explain that to me! Get [Mike] Pereira and [Dean] Blandino analyzing that in their new suits that they get each week."
Not exactly Montana to Clark
At the 10:45 mark, Manning identifies that the Chiefs were running "Sprint Right Option," which the San Francisco 49ers ran on Joe Montana's famous game-winning touchdown pass to Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFC Championship Game, on a play deep in Denver territory. So did Mahomes and Travis Kelce come up with a touchdown on this play?
Not exactly.
The Chiefs' version ends in an inaccurate incomplete pass, which Manning attributes to Tyreek Hill's late start off the line of scrimmage after the snap, which prevents him from attracting attention along the goal line and freeing up Kelce in the back of the end zone.
Peyton Manning hates fumbled snaps
Mahomes fumbled a snap on a fourth-and-goal from the Broncos' 1, which was nullified by a false start before the play. But that didn't stop Manning from going on a tangent about fumbled snaps.
"One fumbled snap per season is one too many," he said. He also went on to talk about the number of snap reps he took with Jeff Saturday and proudly talked about the fact that he and Saturday never fumbled an exchange during the monsoon that was Super Bowl XLI.
Fantasy points for "Marshall Law"
Mahomes threw a touchdown pass to Kelce, which Manning lauded because his son, Marshall, had Kelce on his fantasy team. He didn't indicate whether "Marshall Law" was part of a PPR league, though.
Receivers need to quiet down
While Chiefs tight end Demetrius Harris was wide open in the middle of the field on a "free play" after the Broncos jumped offside, Manning did not appreciate Harris waving his hands at Mahomes to try to get the quarterback's attention. I wonder how many times Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne tried that move.
Manning praises Mahomes' "detail"
The Chiefs ran a "1-2-3" route late in the game, a route combination Manning mentioned during the Rosen episode of Detail. Mahomes makes the correct decision, looking off Demarcus Robinson -- the "1" -- before hitting the "2," Sammy Watkins, on a short crossing route. Manning attributes this to Mahomes' viewership of the show: "Obviously Mahomes watched Detail and learned that."
'Learn not to be so competitive'
Mahomes' one big mistake during the film session came when he tried to force a ball to a covered Kelce, which was overthrown and resulted in a Broncos interception. Manning's advice was for Mahomes to "learn not to be so competitive" on every play, and he shared some advice from Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who was Manning's offensive coordinator at Tennessee.
"The most important thing about every single play is that we possess the ball at the end of that play," Cutcliffe said.