[RealSNR]

I think coaching staffs and scouts from teams looked at Mahomes and didn't know what the hell to do with him. They were so entrenched in their conventional scouting wisdom when it came to QBs that where everybody could see the big plays, all they saw were the unnatural parts of his style that produced those plays and simply assumed it wouldn't ever work in the pros.

So many ex-scouts and ex-coaches on TV said shit like:

"Well, he needs to eliminate those throws across his body...

"Yeesh, he's got no footwork, we have GOT to get him to learn proper 3, 5, and 7 step drops. So that's gonna take a couple years of development..."

"He has no consistent throwing platform, and until he gets one, the guy is going to throw a ton of INTs"

"I don't see any indication he can play in a pro system without resorting to sandlot football tricks that will be snuffed out by NFL defenses."

"He could be outstanding, but the bust potential on him is too much. You typically spend Day 2 or even Day 3 picks on a QB like that."

I'll betcha anything Telesco wasn't lying when he said he really thought about drafting Mahomes, but he was just too confined to his established sensibilities, all of which told him, "Is this the appropriate time to be taking a huge risk like that?" He had never seen anything like him in his years of experience, and everything he had learned in his career had gotten him this far, where he was regarded as one of the league's best GMs. So why should he stop trusting that experience in this particular case? Rivers had some years left... there would be other QBs in future years they could draft... they were in the middle of a plan to get Rivers some weapons so he could get the Chargers back to winning again...

He went with the safe option. And in return for his reasoned, smart, sensible approach, he let any hope of winning a Super Bowl over the next ~15 years die a slow, horrible death.