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Mitch Morse on Chiefs' transition from Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes
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- Mitch Morse on Chiefs' transition from Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes
This week, Chiefs Wire's Ed Easton Jr. spoke with retired Pro Bowl center Mitch Morse .
In his interview with Easton Jr., Morse discussed the Kansas City Chiefs ' transition at quarterback from Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes .
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"Working with Alex (Smith) was like a preparatory school for learning how to be a professional football player. When I say that, I mean it was a master class. You had a guy who had, in his first seven years, seven different coordinators. He had learned not only to grow as a football player, but also to transition through adversity," said Morse. "He had this window of time where he had been playing unbelievable football, and the proverbial rug was pulled from under him." He comes to Kansas City , experiences a renaissance and a resurgence in his career, and he knows exactly what he wants, and every single minute of every single day has a set time and purpose. So you're seeing a guy who does not waste any time in the facility".
Smith was a multiple-time Pro Bowler during his tenure in Kansas City, starting the AFC West division title-winning streak that ended in 2025.
"He was also incredibly patient with me, which I thought he didn't have to be, because he's a guy who's accrued so many under-center snaps, and I must. I'm a tackle from Missouri, trying to learn how to snap the ball and process information," said Morse, "Not only is he having to do his job, but he's also going to, for the first few months, help me do my job, and of all the quarterbacks I've played with, of course, backups. Josh (Allen), Pat (Mahomes), Trevor (Lawrence), and Alex are the most competitive sucker I've ever been in a huddle with. The man oozed not only Moxie but competitive fire, and it was palpable. It was contagious, and to see that play in and play out was extraordinary."
Kansas City selected Mahomes in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, signaling an eventual changing of the guard. Morse reflected on Smith'e attitude during this time period.
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"When Pat (Patrick Mahomes) came in in 2017, Alex was much older than me, but he still had a sense of, you had this protective feeling about a guy, like, what are you seeing that we don't see? This is our quarterback and such. " He handled it with grace," said Morse. "He was Pat's ultimate mentor." I think Pat did a great job of just silently soaking stuff up and then working on his craft, and then Dude, we were all along for the ride in 2018, we had no idea we were stepping into it. I've never seen a man's life change more from Week 1 to Week 17 than Patrick Mahomes' has. I've never seen a man not change from Week 1 to Week 17, when everything else around him was begging him to change, to begging him to be a different person."
Mahomes' first season as a starter was coincidentally Morse's last with the Chiefs before leaving in free agency. The former Texas Tech standout collected the first of his two league MVP awards.
"He was an incredible teammate, extremely approachable, and that's what we're seeing year after year. It's the way he prepares. It's the way, yes, he's got all this stuff outside of football, but the most important thing in his life, of course, is faith and family, but it's football. It's being a professional," said Morse, "It's going through those grimy days, and it's what makes him so special, and no moment is too big. He steps into the huddle. And the thing that you see about these extraordinary quarterbacks, no matter if you're up by 20 or down by 20, no matter what the state of the game is, they walk in with this utter confidence. It's not this rah rah bull****. It's this stuff where you can feel it in your eyes. You see it in their eyes, and when they're maybe saying the play call, they're saying it to every single person. It's this untangible thing, and he's got it, and he's had it since day one."
Morse played center for 10 seasons in the National Football League for the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills , and Jacksonville Jaguars , earning a Pro Bowl selection in 2022. He also played college football for the Missouri Tigers. He hosts a weekly podcast, Monday Mornings with Mitch , and can be followed on Instagram and X .
This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: Mitch Morse on Chiefs' transition from Alex Smith to Patrick Mahomes
