Welcome to the Patrick Mahomes era

I suppose Alex Smith hates young quarterbacks.

First, it was Colin Kaepernick who stole his job when Smith finally found consistency in San Francisco. Landed in Kansas City, after five productive seasons in which he had four playoff trips, he was sent to Washington in order to allow Patrick Mahomes to be the starting quarterback.

But at this moment, would you blame the Chiefs front office?

After four regular season games, he already has 14 TDs and no interception and leads the best offense in the nation in points scored per game, with 36.3. Kansas City won all four games and obviously leads the (not-so-hard) AFC West.

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These achievements have been noticed by the national audience, and our former no. 5 recently won the AFC Offensive Player of the Month. Not bad for a player who just had his second to fifth games in the NFL.

Let’s suppose for a moment Kansas City will make the playoffs, and this is at least probable. Smith had a 1-4 record in the playoffs with the Chiefs’ jersey, losing two wild cards games, and a divisional. Can Mahomes be effective in that context, too?

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Andy Reid is an outstanding coach who made a fantastic job with Smith and working with him is absolutely useful for Mahomes, who can improve in an environment that’s far away from the pressure that marks many other teams.

There are all the conditions to have a great career, but that’s something we, Texas Tech fans, already knew.