During his appearance on Monday night's ManningCast, Patrick Mahomes said a lot of interesting things. He talked about his underwear. He predicted the Broncos' exact defensive call against Josh Allen because he remembered that it was how Denver defended him. And he correctly predicted, in advance, the exact sequence of events that would lead to a Broncos touchdown on a goal-to-go opportunity.
But he also said something interesting about what it's like for him to play the game right now -- specifically about the NFL's recently relaxed jersey number rules, and how it complicates reading defenses.
"It's even crazier now because everybody can wear the single digits," Mahomes said, per Pro Football Talk. "We actually go in every week and we really emphasize the numbers because when you've got a number like No. 7 playing middle linebacker, that can really mess with your tells for the O-linemen. It looks cool, I'll give everybody that, but it makes it a little difficult for the QB."
Quarterbacks typically get to the line of scrimmage and try to identify what coverage the defense is in, as well as who might be blitzing or dropping into coverage based on their alignment and movements. That becomes more difficult when players are wearing unusual numbers.
"You get these guys who rotate in, and you'll get a DB who's in the 40s and a linebacker in single digits," Mahomes said. "Having to really recognize that quickly."
That's especially interesting because Mahomes said a few years back that he didn't know how to read defenses at all until 2019. During a 2020 appearance on The Shop, Mahomes said he couldn't read defenses until "halfway through last year," referencing the 2019 campaign. Which, by the way, was a year after he threw for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns during his debut NFL season.
"I understood coverages but how to be able to pick up little tendencies defenses do, stuff that Brady and them have done, they know it, and they just do it," Mahomes said at the time. "I was just playing." Mahomes also noted that there was "a long way for me to go" when it came to reading defenses. Apparently, he has come that long way -- but not without some new challenges to make things a bit trickier along the ride.
