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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
In fairness, there's 'Smith open' and 'Mahomes open'.
Mahomes can rifle a ball into spaces that Smith just can't. The TD to Kelce is an obvious example, as was the TD to Robinson. Smith woulud've been an idiot to try either of those throws because his arm simply wouldn't allow him to execute them.
And that's more of a reflection of Mahomes than Smith. Smith has an average NFL arm; maybe a tick below but not egregiously so. Mahomes just has a damn howitzer.
I still wonder what the order of progressions was for Smith v. Mahomes. Mecca's right - Andy often sent guys downfield with Smith under center. I always assumed the reads were such that when you see an open player in your progression, you hit him (or the timing falls to hell). So when he'd hit that 7 yard cross instead of taking it downfield, it seemed to me like it was a feature of the offense - that's where he was supposed to look first and if it's there, take it.
But when you watch Mahomes, it seems the progressions are reversed and he looks outside to in. Smith's doing the same thing in Washington he did here, meanwhile Mahomes looks like he's playing a different sport. Hard to say that it wasn't on Smith rather than Reid at this point.
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You make a good point, and the difference in skill set is not lost on me. I guess I agree with you about the blame being on Smith vs Reid though. I think we saw that Reid was able to get guys really open through scheme and the talent of the receivers, Smith just wasn’t as good at seeing it or taking advantage of it when it happened. I recall an advanced stat from last year that KC had the greatest degree of separation on receptions in the league, and it wasn’t close. Smith had his best season taking advantage of that. Now we are seeing what happens when a better arm talent has similar opportunities, and it’s unreal.