Sam McDowell: Patrick Mahomes made one pass in Chiefs' preseason opener. Why it was a big deal.

Sam McDowell, The Kansas City Star on Aug 11, 2025

Published in Football

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — The cornerback shaded to take away the middle part of the end zone, almost daring someone to test him on the boundary, and that’s about when Chiefs receiver Jason Brownlee knew.

“This pass,” he said, “is coming my way.”

Brownlee made a heck of a touchdown catch, the highlight of the Chiefs’ 20-17 loss to the Cardinals in the preseason opener here in Arizona — and, ahem, most certainly the highlight of the 48 seconds Patrick Mahomes spent on the field.

But there’s something far more telling about that play.

The throw.

Or, rather, the decision to throw it at all.

For two years running, the Chiefs haven’t made passes like that one, because for two years running, the Chiefs haven’t tried passes like that one. Their offseason adjustment to the passing game is publicly stated as a desire to revive the deep shot.

It’s more than that. It’s the contested shot, too.

The Chiefs, and more specifically Mahomes, have thrown fewer tight-window passes than any team in football. Mahomes has thrown either the lowest, second lowest or third lowest percentage of tight-window passes of any quarterback in every year of his NFL career, per Next Gen Stats data. Really. The gunslinger mantra has never been a tidy fit.

Yet as he lined up a play Saturday, ready to unleash his first and only throw in a game in which they actually keep score since a devastating Super Bowl loss six months ago, Mahomes looked to the outside, saw the same coverage that struck Brownlee and knew where he was going with the football.

He wanted the one-on-one matchup. Never even looked elsewhere.

“The corner gave him some room,” Mahomes said. “He’s a guy that goes and catches it, so I just threw the ball up and let him go get it, and he made a play on it.”

A back-shoulder throw.

In this offense?

It’s not as though the Chiefs have never employed contested-catch targets. They traded a draft-pick for DeAndre Hopkins last year; they gave receiver Justyn Ross a two-year trial that never amounted to much on-field production; and receiver-turned-tight end Jody Fortson wasn’t on the roster because of his ability to separate.

But it’s just not the way Mahomes prefers to throw footballs, and it’s not the way Andy Reid prefers to design plays.

Yet they intentionally made this choice Saturday, for the only throw Mahomes would make the entire night, which leaves a couple of pretty obvious questions:

Why now? And is there a world in which they actually stick with it in the regular season?

That’s where this column has to return to its original subject. Brownlee has been terrific in training camp, especially over the last week, and the reason for that subjective description is the same evidence you saw on TV on Saturday. He can high-point the football, coverage be damned. He makes the kinds of plays that prompt you to Google his history, left surprised that his two seasons in New York amounted to just five catches.

The Chiefs liked him in the summer programming, and while he hasn’t obtained a ton of snaps with Mahomes in St. Joseph this month, those are starting to increase.

“I gave him a chance to make plays on the field, and he made them,” Mahomes said. “It’s good to see that translate into the game.”

The why-now question, in other words, is player specific. There’s a connection building there, even if Brownlee and Mahomes have literally never played an NFL snap together.

Brownlee will force a tough cut-day decision onto the Chiefs, who aren’t lacking for depth at wide receiver. But they might need to evaluate which question they’re asking before they make it. It’s not strictly about whether Brownlee is good enough to make an NFL roster.

Is he unique to their wide receiver room? Would they take advantage of unique?

I don’t know if the roster math will work in Brownlee’s favor, but I know the skill-set can. There’s not another player who the Chiefs would have sought and thrown a single-coverage fade for that first quarter touchdown pass.

“He’s played well, so (we) give him an opportunity to get in there and play,” Reid said. “He knows how to use his size, for sure, and he had some nice plays the rest of the way, too, as far as routes. He didn’t have the catches, but he had good routes there. I thought he was in a position where he deserved to get in there and get some playing time.”

He’s earned some more.

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