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The sixth-round draft pick met with the Kansas City media on Sunday."WhiteSeries Stagner ThingsLottery Tickets ’19Summer of SpagsMailbagFanposts Fanshots Community Community GuidelinesContactAbout StubHub ✕NFL DraftChiefs 2019 draftNew Chiefs running back Darwin Thompson is ready to play anywhereNew Ron Parker Jersey ,19commentsThe sixth-round draft pick met with the Kansas City media on Sunday.CDTShareTweetShareShareNew Chiefs running back Darwin Thompson is ready to play anywhereIf he makes the roster this fall, sixth-round draft pick Darwin Thompson of Utah State will be the fourth Kansas City Chiefs running back with the name Thompson on the back of his jersey.You’re not likely to remember Del (drafted by the Chiefs in the fifth round in 1982) or Ernie (who joined the Chiefs for a single season in 1993).Together they carried for just 35 yards on 15 attempts.Leroy might jog your memory a little more.He played four years in the league with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots before spending the 1995 season with Kansas City.A sixth-round pick in 1991, he’d been a reasonably productive back in his earlier stops, but behind Marcus Allen and Greg Hill, he gained just 73 yards on 28 carries for the Chiefs.Darwin hopes to change that — and as befits his name, it could end up being a case of survival of the fittest.Standing just 5 feet 8 and weighing only 200 pounds, Thompson has been described as “rocked out” by national scout Trey Koziol, head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach.Speaking to the media on Sunday, Thompson said that his passion for weight training began in high school.”In my junior year of high school, a kid told me I wouldn’t be a running back,” he explained. “I was too slow, not big enough — things like that. After that year, it just never left me. Everybody always asks me how I got my traps. It was that one year of high school, I just went crazy on the traps and I never left.”Koziol said after the draft that Thompson’s strength was one of the things that put him on the Chiefs’ radar.“I thought he had really good strength and really good contact balance,” Koziol said. “He runs with a low center of gravity. That is one of the things that the guys at Utah State mentioned. He was pound for pound probably the strongest kids in their program, just in terms of his lower body strength.””I believe it’s from the weight room,” Thompson told the press on Sunday. “I have to make up for my height somewhere. I do that in the weight room. I [believe in] being strong in your lower half — in your core. I mean, you look at Alvin Kamara and see some of the things he does as far as training and the core work he does, I feel like it starts in the weight room, [but] eventually you have to translate [that] onto the field.”In his single season at Utah State — where he transferred after playing two seasons at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, Oklahoma — Thompson proved adept at making that translation Allen Bailey Jersey , amassing 1,455 all-purpose yards and 15 touchdowns, and rushing for 6.8 yards per attempt.Despite concerns about his abilities in pass protection and his long speed, Arrowhead Pride’s Nerd Squad had rated Thompson as a sixth-round pick in their KC Draft Guide.But it seems the Chiefs had rated him more highly.Once they had used their first sixth-round choice on cornerback Rashad Fenton with the 201st pick, Veach immediately went to work making sure they could get Thompson, too.“We had him higher on that value board and when he fell there in the sixth round,” Veach said after the draft.“When we took Fenton, I was actually trying to make some moves to get back up there and get him because I didn’t want to lose him three or five picks before we picked.”Veach said that despite calling “every team” picking between the Chiefs’ picks at 201 and 214, he was unable to make a deal.“But I told the guys, I was looking at all these teams and all these teams had taken a running back earlier in the draft, so I was like, ‘These teams went running back earlier, I think we might be OK here.’ We were kind of all like a little nervous there for those 10 or 11 picks because [Thompson] was the guy our eyes immediately went to.”Plays like this one — highlighted in Kent Swanson’s film review of Thompson — are among those that made the Chiefs want to get him.Koziol said that Thompson will represent a change of pace in the running back room.“He is obviously a little bit undersized,” Koziol said after the draft, “but in terms of his twitch and his burst, kind of that change of pace guy that can make moves in space. He is a big-play threat. He always was a big play threat for them at Utah State. It is a little bit different than what we had, so it gives us a little bit different dimension in terms of the passing game and guys who can operate out in space, too.”When asked about his size on Sunday, Thompson elicited laughter from the press.”I don’t have much to tackle,” he said. “I make a lot of people miss. It’s hard. You can’t tackle me in a phone booth. It’s a blessing in disguise.”The Chiefs front office has emphasized that they believe Thompson will be in an ideal situation in Kansas City — despite his size and the competition he will face to find a spot on the roster.Thompson agrees.”Just the offense and Andy Reid,” he said on Sunday. “You talk about star-struck? I met coach Andy Reid on my top-30 visit [and thought] Eric Fisher Jersey , ‘Man, this is a Hall of Fame coach. He’s on his way.’ To be in his system and to see what he did with other guys at the running back position, I’m very blessed. Perfect situation.”Thompson had already spoken about the strong impression Chiefs coaches had left on him following his pre-draft visit.“At the age of 35 I hope to see myself in player development,” he said after the draft. “At the age of 45 I hope to see myself as [running backs coach] Deland McCullough. At the age of 50, I hope to see myself as [offensive coordinator] Eric Bieniemy. I can see myself growing there and they’re going to push me to grow not only as a football player, but as a man. Once I [saw] that, it really blew me away just how much I related to those guys and how much we had that connection. Me and coach Bieniemy, for example, he’s got the same chip on his shoulder that I do. We both stand 5-7, 5-8 and 200 pounds. Coach Bieniemy went in the second round, ended up playing ten years in the league and always carried that chip on his shoulder. That’s the way he coaches.”On Sunday, Thompson said that as an overlooked and underrated player, he has that chip on his shoulder, too.“I feel like I don’t do it so much for the people that doubt me, but more for the people that are inspired by me,” he said. “It’s much more than just ‘about me’ now. I’ve got kids that look up to me from my city, and I’m happy to represent.”Thompson said he feels he represents many constituencies and spoke with clear emotion about them. ”There’s a lot of kids who stand 5-8 — or are just from Oklahoma. People think of Oklahoma, they think we ride horses on the street; I have family in California who think we have carriages and horses. People with single mothers. Things like that. I plan to give back. That’s one of the main things I want to do. When I was younger, I had soccer cleats as my first pair of cleats. Then the next season I had to wear the same pair of cleats. So when I have enough money, I want to buy that first pair of cleats for kids that come to my camps. That way they got their first pair. Not everybody can afford it. I definitely plan on giving back to my kids.”Speaking to the press, the soft-spoken running back seemed remarkably self-aware and mature for his modest 22 years.”In high school Cameron Erving Jersey , I was a stubborn kid that just believed I was a running back,” he said. “I didn’t want to play defense. I played, but I was like, ‘I want to be a running back.’ You know, every kid growing up says they want to be a running back — [they] want to be like Adrian Peterson — [but] I think over time as I sat back and humbled myself, I realized [I] can play anywhere on the field [I] need to play. Once you get to this level, you’re going to have to play some special teams. I pride myself in that, because football was taken away from me for a little bit, and now I just feel that much more in love with the game.”And now that he’s poised to enter the NFL, Thompson seems determined to excel in whatever way the Chiefs use him.”I’m an athlete,” he maintained. “I’m not just a running back. They put me on kickoff, I’m going to be the best player on kickoff. That’s my chance to play defense. Catching the ball out of the backfield is just something I pride myself in, because I don’t believe I’m just a running back — I’m an athlete. So doing that just shows my versatility. I can be split out in the slot... outside... just whatever. Put me anywhere.” This is part one of a three-part weekly film analysis on the performance of Patrick Mahomes.Well, this is weird.It’s been a while since the Kansas City Chiefs lost a game, and it’s the first time in Patrick Mahomes’ career. Just as having a young, home-grown quarterback is unfamiliar territory for a generation of Chiefs fans, so is this feeling with the kid under center. The responses have been appropriate to the moment. This wasn’t a shellacking. This wasn’t remotely embarrassing.Mahomes went to toe to toe with the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady and brought his team roaring back to take a lead in the fourth quarter. Bill Belichick had three extra days to prepare to stop an offense that has been the talk of the league. He got the 23-year-old early in the game with a few plays we’ll talk about in the next few days that led to mistakes and turnovers. The Chiefs trailed 24-9 at the half, and things look bleak.Lesser 23-year-old quarterbacks have been chewed up and spit out in Foxborough, and for a half, it looked like that might be the case. Not your guy, Kansas City. The Chiefs lost Reggie Ragland Jersey , but your young quarterback hung 31 in the second half. He earned the respect of yet another locker room. He’s learning every opportunity he gets and he’s not duplicating many mistakes. There were rough moments on Sunday, but you still got the spectacular you’ve come to expect. He makes you forget that he’s not a veteran every week.The Patriots threw a lot at Mahomes this week, and it worked enough early to force the Chiefs to play from behind. No moment has looked too big for him for an entire game, though. He’s still having to manage the juice early, but he continues to figure it out as the game goes on and with enough time to give his team a chance to win. Every week, he’s inching closer and closer to it not mattering what the defense tries to do, and you can count on one hand the guys that are like that.Something goodThey scored too quick!This is, of course, the last time the offense would touch the ball. The Patriots are playing Cover 3 and the Chiefs dial play-action with Tyreek Hill working into the boundary on a deep crosser. The Chiefs ask Hill to eat up a ton of ground in order to get over. He threatens the safety vertically as he works across the field, and safety Duron Harmon opens his hips to Hill as he gets depth. As Hill crosses the safety’s face, it forces him to flip his hips, giving Mahomes additional space to throw. With the boundary corner occupied by Kelce, there’s no one in the way of this throw.The ball was a little behind Hill, but it didn’t matter. The velocity let Hill make up for a little lost time to accelerate away from Harmon. The route by Hill gave the duo some margin for error, but the 40-plus-air yard throw with rare velocity helped maintain enough of it for Hill to score.The Chiefs have run similar looks to this with Alex Smith in the past, just with shorter routes. They’re stretching the limits with Mahomes and Hill further now. Even though everything wasn’t perfect, the Chiefs are still keeping defensive coordinators up at night with plays like these. We’re spoiled getting to watch this perfect pairing.Something badHow about we add some positives to this week’s something bad before delving into a big mistake?There’s 51 seconds remaining in the half and the Chiefs trail by 15. At their own 30, the Chiefs face a third-and-15, needing to extend the drive to keep the ball out of Brady’s hands and give themselves a chance to shrink the lead.Things that are becoming norms should not be becoming norms. Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to make third-and-long plays look this easy, but every week, it feels like Mahomes pulls one of these off. The Chiefs are lined up in a Y-Iso look with Travis Kelce lined up to the left in the boundary. The Patriots are showing a two-high shell but roll into a Cover 3. They’re running a flood concept into the boundary with Kelce clearing space underneath on a vertical. With a late blitzing Kyle Van Noy coming to Mahomes’ front side Jarvis Jenkins Jersey , he rolls to his left with the direction of the pass concept.With space between the underneath defender, the cornerback on the vertical with Kelce and the middle field safety, Mahomes finds Hill with a throw of 38 air yards rolling to his non-dominant side, on a rope to convert for a gain of 27 yards. His ability to rotate his body to be able to deliver the velocity he did is absurd.You can hear a quiet but audible “Wow,” from Chris Collinsworth on the game broadcast. Unfortunately, that amazing play was wasted.With 17 seconds remaining and one timeout left at the New England 15-yard line, Mahomes makes a critical mistake.Mahomes does a nice job stepping up against front-side pressure and then exiting to his right. With a chasing Donta’ Hightower hanging onto him, he elects to take a chance and throws the ball into congested space to Kelce on the scramble working laterally with him after running a middle curl. The ball is undercut by Harmon, then bounces off of Devin McCourty and back into the hands of Harmon for a drive-ending interception.This play was a first-and-10. Had he thrown the ball away, Mahomes could’ve had a few more chances to get into the end zone before having to kick a field goal. The Chiefs still had a timeout remaining, so the playbook was still pretty open. This is the kind of mistake Mahomes has mostly avoided in the last few games. I don’t expect it to happen too often, but in this situation, the young quarterback tried to do too much. Quarterback anecdoteEvery week, I add a quick note about something I’ve picked up about the quarterback position through my time learning and playing the game.“Kill, Kill!” If you’ve ever heard that picked up a quarterback saying that on a broadcast microphone, you might have wondered what that meant. The quarterback gives two plays in the huddle and based on what the defense is doing. The play call might sound something like:“Wide Right Jet Right 544 F-Whip...Kill...3 Zone”The pass play is called in the huddle, but if they like the look to run they can kill into a zone-run play. If the quarterback elects to run the original call, he goes through his normal cadence. If he likes his numbers in the box, he would yell “Kill, Kill” into the run play.