The harmony of Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, KC Chiefs was tested, even if we missed it

You can’t win it all without one, so naturally, teams will flood extravagant resources toward obtaining one. Some careers will surge, while others will burst, based on their ability to acquire the right one.

It’s the riddle of an elite NFL quarterback, the most coveted commodity in all of sports. So coveted, in fact, that a team might just hand out the largest guaranteed contract in league history to a quarterback accused of something utterly repulsive.

So coveted that another will concede two first-round draft picks, two second-rounders and a fifth to land one who falls outside the best five in the game.

“It’s about the quarterback,” that team will explain it. “You can ask all these guys around here: You have to have a quarterback to have a chance.”

You won’t find the other end of that argument here, but for all of the assets relinquished just to get the quarterback on the roster — cash, picks or even dignity — there is too often a lack of assets devoted toward a very important next step.

Keeping the quarterback. Or at least keeping the quarterback happy.

If the last few offseasons have taught us anything, the most important position in the game is its most dramatic, too. Self-inflicted or team-inflicted, whatever the cause, it can turn in an instant.

This is not about the Chiefs, but yes, actually, it is very much about the Chiefs.

As the spectacle of an offseason engulfed some of the league’s best quarterbacks, same show as the year before with a different cast of characters for the reboot, the Chiefs sat in the audience, reclining to watch it unfold.

Their absence is noteworthy because of its increasing rarity in a superstar-driven league, but also as a reflection of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, head coach Andy Reid general manager Brett Veach and the Hunt family ownership. It can take only one misstep for it to unravel, and when it does, man, the thread is pulled quickly.

Because — guess what — some of these other teams and quarterbacks once sat in the audience too.

Before they were picked out and called to the stage, one by one.

The Chiefs were tested this offseason

An offseason defined by quarterback movement — by quarterback drama — got one-upped by a trade involving no quarterback at all.

A trade involving the Chiefs.

In late March, after contract extension talks reached an impasse, the Chiefs sent wide receiver Tyreek Hill to Miami in exchange for five draft picks. Hill, mind you, has been Mahomes’ top wide receiver in each of his four seasons as a starting quarterback.

It was a situation, in other words, that could have invited some disgruntlement between franchise and franchise quarterback.

Could have.

Two weeks before the deal, after the Hill negotiations at the NFL Scouting Combine signaled a price tag that would grow uncomfortable, Veach and Reid knew. This might not end well. This might not end with Tyreek Hill even wearing a Chiefs uniform anymore.

Before engaging in trade talks, though, which would expand to multiple teams, Veach and Reid separately made phone calls elsewhere.

To Mahomes.

“Myself and Brett kept it wide open with Patrick,” Reid said. “... It’s important they see that’s part of this game — changes does take place. And if you beat around the bush on it, I don’t think that’s good, either. I’m kind of up front — this is what it is; this is the plan going forward.”

How do you trade one of the game’s best weapons, and not let it become a thing with the quarterback?

The Chiefs asked that question, too. Turns out, the answer is pretty simple, and it just so happens to fall in line with the arc of Andy Reid’s career.

Communication.

Sure, one blunder here is not typically something that, on its own, would send a deeply-rooted relationship off the rails.

But it could. And it has.

That’s the lesson the Chiefs can learn from the mistakes of their peers. Fend off the mere possibilities before the possibilities become reality.

Aaron Rodgers is the longest-tenured quarterback with a single franchise, having stayed in Green Bay twice as long as any other quarterback has resided with his franchise. But it’s not what it once was.

A year ago, Rodgers wanted out, and nobody needed to leave bread crumbs for the rest of us to trace the origin of how such a successful union had gone bad. The Packers traded up and drafted quarterback Jordan Love in the first round in 2020, a pick that stunned not just the outside world but even those within it.

Like, say, Rodgers.

They Packers had failed to tell their franchise quarterback they envisioned — and selected — his replacement before he had deemed himself in need of one.

This is not about Aaron Rodgers, or at least it’s not just about Aaron Rodgers. It’s about the developing trend, not a one-off, of the tension that the position seems to so readily embrace.

To be clear, I’m not implying the Chiefs are even near the verge of joining that circus.

Some others once assumed that too, though.

Do you think when the Seahawks hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in 2014 they anticipated they’d trade Russell Wilson on the back end of his prime? That city talked dynasty, not rebuild. And now the most intriguing story line of Seattle’s training camp is whether, ahem, Geno Smith or Drew Lock would win the quarterback battle.

We’re having debates in the Kansas City press box about whether Shane Buechele should pass Chad Henne on the Chiefs’ depth chart after a couple of touchdowns in a third preseason game.

The Browns are handing Deshaun Watson $230 million guaranteed in the midst of two dozen allegations of sexual misconduct, a deal that also eventually sent Baker Mayfield packing to Carolina.

The Cardinals are running one of those shops with a “Days Since Last Incident” chalkboard hung at the entrance. In the same week they signed Kyler Murray to a long-term extension, ending one standoff, it was revealed that a clause of the contract required he complete at least four hours of “independent study” every week. They couldn’t even make it 48 hours without quarterback drama, and that’s after they got the deal done.

Yet it’s somehow a situation Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson probably envies, because at least Murray has gotten paid. The Ravens might actually let Jackson enter a contract year.

Even Tom Brady missed more than a week of training camp this month, his absence still unexplained, other than, “I’m 45 years old. There’s a lot of s--- going on.”

And I’ll let Google be your friend on the summer of Jets quarterback Zach Wilson.

These are anecdotes, jam-packed into just one offseason over a handful of months, that include some of the game’s upper echelon of quarterback talent. They stretch far beyond, “Is this guy good enough to play?” If we do expand to include all situations, we’re left with, what, fewer than a dozen teams who both like their guy and escaped the offseason without a disturbance?

For now.

How to keep the harmony between quarterback and franchise

Look, I’m not just trying to point out, Hey, look how lucky the Chiefs are. Their franchise quarterback comes without drama!

That’s a relevant footnote to it. But it’s the how and the why that are worth exploring, because they dictate the long-term relationship. They determine if the Chiefs can refrain from following any of the aforementioned paths.

As unlikely as they might seem presently, their counterparts’ examples represent a clear picture of the sheer number of things that can turn this thing sideways.

How do the Chiefs avoid it? How have they?

The quarterback would be a good place to start, right? It’s hard to find anyone — teammate, coach or otherwise — with a bad word to say about Mahomes. So, yes, that’s a good start.

But if we truly learn from the other situations, the management plays a bigger factor. The biggest factor. That’s where the Chiefs have separated themselves.

There are few coaches — or perhaps no NFL coaches — better at managing the celebrity and quasi-celebrity personalities than Andy Reid. Few better at turning would-be distractions into a stiff-arm at news conferences, as good as the opposite approach would be for column fodder.

Heck, a simple phone call squashed what could have been an even more eventful summer. We glossed over that. We shouldn’t have.

There’s an art to it, and his artwork has been studied and plagiarized by his quarterback. After last year’s loss in the AFC Championship Game, for example, Reid and Mahomes wanted to blame only themselves, when, well, they could’ve pointed their fingers at each other or any number of others.

All of that falls under the communication umbrella, but if we’re looking at this like a pie chart, there are two major slices, and that’s just one.

The other? Reid has become more trusting — or at least more relaxed as a result of that trust — than he once was. This offseason, he allowed Mahomes to skip OTAs in favor of holding his own mini-camp, of sorts, in Texas. Brought some receivers with him. Reid has not only avoided showing any agitation about the situation; he actually went out of his way to compliment the arrangement.

Communication. And ceding a bit of authority.

It’s a lesson the rest of the league could stand to consider, and one the Chiefs shouldn’t soon forget, either.

Let the franchise quarterback take a little bit of control now.

So you don’t lose all control later.