The Chicago Bears grimly nod
Huge news: we have a new inductee into The Hall of Publicly Being Haunted By The Decision To Not Draft Patrick Mahomes.
Joining the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, and basically every other Top-10 team that wasn't the Browns is... Sean Payton! It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
For those who don't remember: Payton was the head coach of the Saints in 2017, and happened to have the honor of picking immediately after the Chiefs in the NFL Draft order. Stories of the organization trying to trade up to take Mahomes are well-documented by now, although "settling" for Marshon Lattimore certainly wasn't the worst decision of Payton's career in New Orleans.
While Payton is now doing a full media circuit in an effort to convince everyone that Bo Nix is The New Drew Brees, a story he told about draft night was a nice reminder of how much he's haunted by that draft.
Sean Payton's never going to get over missing out on Patrick Mahomes
The new clip comes from The Athletic's "Scoop City" podcast, where Payton sat down recently to talk about some behind-the-scenes details from draft night.
"There were a few other teams that saw it the same way," Payton said in regards to where Nix would get drafted. "We stopped the tape, and I said, 'George, I'm just going to say this: we're not the only ones seeing it this way.' You try to simulate what you think's going to happen ... "
"We thought that the Giants were going to be an at-large team, not necessarily for Bo, but at quarterback ... Then the Jets were on the clock, and I said to George, 'Just call them. We don't want them to move up unnecessarily one or two picks, I don't want anything happening like Kansas City."
Glorious. Simply glorious. There's no other way to describe it. And actually, it's not like "deeply regretting not drafting Patrick Mahomes" is all that dramatic of a take, but there's just something sweet about knowing that Sean Payton still has nightmares about that evening all these years later. Not only that, but now he has to play him twice a year? What a wonderful time to be a Chiefs fan.
