"Saints were ready to take him" - Mike Florio claims New Orleans was ready to draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017 but got nicked by the Chiefs

Patrick Mahomes came into the league in 2017. Picked 10th overall by the Kansas City Chiefs he spent his rookie season behind veteran starter Alex Smith. The following year, with Alex Smith in Washington and Mahomes named the starter, he went on to win the MVP and Offensive Player of the Year awards.

He followed that season with a Super Bowl championship and Super Bowl MVP. Last season, the quarterback threw for 4,839 yards, 37 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

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But what if things had gone differently? During the 2017 draft, the New Orleans Saints were in a prime spot to draft Mahomes. And the word is, they wanted him. Imagine if Mahomes spent a year behind Drew Brees and the former ended up in Washington. Or somewhere else.

Mike Florio offered his incites on the 2017 draft. The host of Pro Football talk for NBC Sports, Florio recently took a look at the Saints' missed opportunity:

"That's one thing that everyone is discounting and all of this the possibility that there are teams out there that we don't know about, that secretly have fallen in love with one of these guys. And I think back to 2017, Patrick Mahomes, the chiefs loved him, the Saints loved him, and no one knew it.

Florio continued:

And but for the Chiefs trading up to number 10 with the Bills, and you could argue in hindsight, although the Bills did all right with Josh Allen, I should have taken Patrick Mahomes instead of trading down. But when the Chiefs moved up, and the Saints were ready to take him, I mean, that was kept close to the vest.

He finished with:

That's what you do, when you really like one of these guys. And that keeps the media from figuring it out. You know, a lot of the guesswork that we engage in pretending to know what's going to happen is based upon things that we hear from people who are connected. "

Who will the next Patrick Mahomes from the 2022 draft?

There's no doubt NFL teams like to play possible draft picks close to the vest. Despite all the so-called draft experts and mock drafts, there's no way of knowing what will happen when the picks start rolling in.

With the draft now upon us, it will be exciting to see what moves are made, and what team will snag the next Patrick Mahomes, Cooper Kupp or Jonathan Taylor. Who will acquire that diamond in the rough that proves to be the next superstar in the NFL?

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