Patrick Mahomes' comments on Kansas City Chiefs teammates being cut sum him up
After winning two Super Bowl trophies and two MVP awards with the Kansas City Chiefs, quarterback Patrick Mahomes wouldn't be blamed for taking it easy throughout the preseason.
He has rarely taken the field as the Chiefs look to save their superstar signal-calling for the regular season, when they will look to challenge for another championship. But Mahomes has hardly been taking it easy throughout the last few months, working hard in practice to be back to his incredible best - while being the leader and teammate that the organisation needs him to be.
According to reports, Mahomes has continued to build relationships with all of his teammates throughout the roster. The quarterback hugely celebrated when backup quarterback Shane Buechele led a touchdown drive in their game with the New Orleans Saints.
Buechele could well be one of 37 players who will be cut from the team next week, with every NFL team needing to cut their roster down from 90 to 53. Mahomes is not looking forward to that day. Discussing how he feels when teammates get cut, he showed the selflessness and empathy which has made him so popular in the locker room.
He told reporters: "It’s hard, I don’t like to follow it too closely. I’m rooting for everybody. It’s hard to sit there and you don’t want to promote for one guy to make it over another guy because this is people’s livelihoods, this is people’s lives.
Joe Burrow backs Patrick Mahomes after Kansas City Chiefs reach Super Bowl"I let those guys, Brett Veach and coach Reid handle that, Clark Hunt everyone like that. They do a good job of finding the best players to put in position to go out there and have success. I don’t follow that too closely.
"It’s hard for me. I like all the guys in the locker room, it’s hard to see guys, even if it’s for a moment, their dreams kind of get cut right there so it definitely is a hard day for everybody in this league."
The Chiefs will return as one of the Super Bowl favourites this year, despite losing two of their starting wide receivers in JuJu Smith-Schuster joining the New England Patriots and Mecole Hardman joining the New York Jets.
But the team does look to be lacking star quality at wide receiver, and could look at securing a trade at some point during the season, should a team struggle and look to offload a few quality players.
However, the Chiefs currently have limited cap space available to them in order to secure a deal.