Having a plan for offense and defense.

SweetT said
He had Bowe there for a couple of years, Maclin had a good year once, then Kelce, then Tyreek. Also had Jamal Charles, Spencer Ware, and Kareem Hunt. Never got pass the Divisional round.
Mahomes has had Tyreek and Kelce. Always got to the Conference Championship at minimum.
Smith’s ceiling was 2017 when he had an embarrassment of riches.
2018, Mahomes’ 1st year as starter (basically his rookie year), that offense blew the top of the NFL.
Now ask yourself, “why would a rookie QB get the green light and not a seasoned veteran, with a few Pro Bowls under his belt, along with a run game”? It’s bc Smith had limitations and Mahomes was just that great. Reid saw that. Sean Payton saw that as well. That’s why he couldn’t keep his mouth shut about his workout. Pretty much told every person in every interview he did. Also, I do value your opinions, as you are one of my favorite posters on SR, but calling Mahomes “Alex Smith with a green light” is off the mark. Thats Skip Bayless type talk🤣
We can agree to disagree @jahsoul357

And that's what I'm saying....you named 2 receivers, Kelce, and running backs.

Mahomes first season, he had a 2nd year as WR1 Tyreek, Kelce, Hunt, Watkins, etc. An understated fact is Mahomes had a better team outside of himself. I highly doubt that Smith's ceiling was his first season playing both Hill and Kelce in their role and if anyone really paid attention, it wasn't happenstance that it was his best season.

And crazy question; outside of arm strength and being more elusive in the pocket, what limitations did smith have? Lack of highlight plays that are usually the cause of his interceptions? lol

I think that Andy Reid is one of the greatest ever but anybody who watched any Chiefs games from 2013-2016 and then 2017 knew that Andy Reid screwed Smith by not putting more WR talent around him and that's what makes this season funny. Yall are saying that Mahomes is having a down year because he now has to play with the same level of WR talent that Alex Smith had to most of his time in Kansas City but we judge Smith based on the talent he had around . If Mahomes is who we make him to be, he should be making that talent better, right?

Again, this isn't me saying that Alex Smith is better than Mahomes; this is me saying that everyone's perception of Smith comes from him working with subpar talent at receiver and they never spend 2 seconds to really put 2 and 2 together. Now we say that Mahomes is having a down year because he is said to now have "sub-par talent." That's all