Maybe the Chiefs didn’t quite need to see rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes perform in his first NFL start — take his first official snaps, in fact — at Denver last New Year’s Eve for an out-with-the-old/in-with-the-new scheme to unfold from there.
If it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Mahomes would take over for Alex Smith after a one-year apprenticeship, the front office already had an inclination that way between the mere economics of the radical differences in their contracts and its exhilarated conviction about Mahomes’ future.
“We saw a lot (in him), and I think the Denver game didn’t do anything other than reaffirm our position,” general manager Brett Veach said.