One of the biggest draft picks of the past decade came when the Kansas City Chiefs traded up to No. 10 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft to add then-Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Fast-forward to the present day and Mahomes has led the franchise to three Super Bowl titles, including back-to-back championships over the past two years. While Mahomes, who sat most of his rookie season behind Alex Smith, quickly established himself as an elite quarterback, his arrival to the league -- and possible landing spot with K.C. -- could've been wildly different under today's college football climate.
In a recent interview, Mahomes was asked about NIL deals and what he could've been paid when he was at Texas Tech within this current landscape. In his answer, the two-time league MVP noted that being able to make significant money at the collegiate level could've delayed his NFL career.
"It would have been a good amount of money, especially for Lubbock, Texas," said Mahomes, via The Kansas City Star. "If I would have been able to get NIL, I probably would have stayed for my senior year, and who knows what the rest of my NFL history would have been?"
It's a fascinating "what if?" scenario to think about if Mahomes were to have stayed with the Red Raiders for the 2017 season. While he didn't play much at all during his rookie season, could the Chiefs have been able to still trade up a year later to draft him?
In 2017, they sent their No. 27 overall pick, a third-rounder in 2017, and a first-rounder in 2018 to move up with the Buffalo Bills for the No. 10 pick and the right to take Mahomes. If they never made that trade, they would've owned the No. 22 overall pick in the first round in 2018. So they would've had some ammunition to make a similar trade-up, but the teams inside the top 10 may have been as willing to move out, particularly with several other quarterbacks out there as well.
For instance, the No. 10 overall pick in 2018 belonged to the Arizona Cardinals, who took UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen. Given their need for a quarterback at that time, it'd seem unlikely they would've traded out with the Chiefs and possibly could've drafted Mahomes themselves over Rosen. As for the Buffalo Bills, they again ended up inside the top 10, but they were the ones trading up from No. 12 to select Josh Allen at No. 7 overall.
The Cleveland Browns (No. 1 overall, Baker Mayfield) and New York Jets (No. 3 overall, Sam Darnold) also took quarterbacks inside the top 10. So, in this alternate universe where Mahomes stays for another year at Texas Tech, it's conceivable that any one of these teams opted for him over the signal-caller they ultimately took, sending the NFL on an entirely different trajectory than it is right now.
