Patrick Mahomes thought the Bears were going to draft him

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The success of Patrick Mahomes continues to torment Chicago Bears fans.

After clinching his third trip to the Super Bowl in his fifth season as a starter, the Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback's father said he “wholeheartedly thought” he was going to be Chicago.

And he added that Mahomes “definitely wanted” to be a Bear.

“Because they told him that they were going to draft him," Mahomes Sr. told Parkins and Spiegel. "They told him they were going to draft him, so we thought he was going to be the third pick overall and go to Chicago. He had a great meeting when he there and liked all the guys that were doing stuff there. He thought he was going to be a Bear.

"And then once they traded up and got Mitch, it kind of hurt him. It really did."

The Bears famously traded up in the draft to select North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the second-overall pick. The Chiefs  would eventually move up to the No. 10 pick to select Mahomes.

Mahomes would go on to win the MVP in his first season as a starter and a Super Bowl in his second. He took the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl the following season and just won his third AFC Championship game in five seasons to go back to the Super Bowl.

In 2020, Bleacher Report's Kalyn Kahler reported the Bears told Mahomes they would select him.

Mahomes himself has shed some light on what he thought was going to happen in 2017, but it didn't involve the Bears. On the Kelce brothers' podcast, Mahomes outlines how he told the Chiefs if they wanted him they'd have to trade up to get him because he thought the New Orleans Saints were going to select him at No. 11.

"“As the process went on, I got a feeling I was going up in the draft," Mahomes said. "I had a couple of teams that said they were gonna draft me — and I mean, that’s true, it’s not like these coaches are making it up — I talked to them in the draft process and they were like, ‘Hey if you’re there, we’re gonna take you'”

Now one of those teams could've been the Bears, but Mahomes was giving warnings about being selected later than the Bears' pick to the Chiefs.

"I kind of gave a little inside info to the Chiefs: ‘Hey, if y’all let me go anywhere below, at the time I didn’t know about the Saints, but if y’all let me go 12 or below I’m gonna get drafted by someone else,’" Mahomes said.

"So I gave the Chiefs a little bit of info on that because I wanted to be here.”

It could be that Mahomes knew the Chiefs were a safety net of sorts.

"He always knew that Kansas City had told him that they were going to come up and get him," Mohomes Sr. said. "They just didn’t know how far they’d have to go. But initially, he thought he was going to be a Chicago Bear.”

And the irony from that interview, Matt Nagy stacked the deck for the Chiefs to get Mahomes. Nagy gave Mahomes the plays they were going to go over in advance of his meeting with Andy Reid so he would ace the interview. Nagy would then be hired by the Bears as the head coach in 2018, after Mahomes' rookie season in Kansas City.

Picking Trubisky, who is on his third team in his career, will always sting Chicago fans.

When the Chiefs played the Bears in 2019, Mahomes added some salt in the wound of Bears fan with a touchdown celebration. He counted to the No. 10, because he was the 10th overall pick after the Bears passed in favor of Trubisky.

This August, the Chiefs came to Soldier Field and Mahomes expressed his love of playing in Chicago.

"I love playing here at Soldier Field," Mahomes said. "It's an awesome stadium. You feel the history of it. And hopefully I get to play a couple more games here and and try to do whatever I can to win them."

What could've been.

If you want to feel better, the Bears have a promising young quarterback now in Justin Fields. Hall of fame wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson said he sees a little Mahomes in Fields.

"You know what he [Fields] has that I just picked up on?" Johnson said Keyshawn, JWill and Max. "Does he got a little Patrick Mahomes in him? I'm just talking about his ability to move around and throw the football."

Johnson added: "It just dawned on me right here on this play. Bam! He's out. Eyes down the field, he throws a ball to his left down the sideline. That's Patrick Mahomes."

Fields has another offseason to improve his game and hopefully general manager Ryan Poles, armed with an unrivaled war chest of cap space and the No. 1 overall draft pick, can bolster the team around him.

But what could've been.

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