Chiefs’ JuJu Smith-Schuster says Patrick Mahomes has done behind-the-back passes ‘multiple times’ at practice​on February 7, 2025 at 6:33 pm

NEW ORLEANS — Patrick Mahomes has long been considered a master of acrobatic passes. And that went to a new level during the 2024 preseason, when he spontaneously completed a behind-the-back toss to tight end Travis Kelce. It turns out the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has practiced — and completed — the improbable throw “multiple times” in practice, according to wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.

“Most underrated attribute?” Smith-Schuster said of Mahomes ahead of Super Bowl LIX. “I would say no-look [passes]. He does it. And behind-the-back. That’s something that he’s done in practice multiple times.”

This comes almost six months after Mahomes completed an 8-yard pass to Kelce after slinging his arm behind the back during the Chiefs’ preseason loss to the Detroit Lions. The three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback said afterward that coach Andy Reid had been urging him to try such a pass, per ESPN, and local reporters had occasionally seen Mahomes trying to do so during previous practices. This particular completion, however, was improvised after Kelce ran the wrong route, causing Mahomes to act quickly, the quarterback claimed.

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“If you look at that play, I’m not going to say it’s the only way you can make that throw,” Mahomes said at the time. “But it would’ve been hard for me to kind of turn and throw it back across or above the guy, the two guys, chasing me. … [It’s] not something that I want to try to major in. It might be something that just kind of happens every once in a while.”