Former Chiefs All-Pro player breaks down Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce's passing game chemistry

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are one of the best quarterback-pass catcher combinations in league history.

They have been particularly lethal during the playoffs, owning the NFL record for the most postseason touchdowns by a quarterback-receiver duo with 16.

Since Mahomes took over as the Kansas City Chiefs' starting quarterback in 2018, he and Kelce have hooked up for 8,348 yards and 55 touchdowns. Someone that has seen the two up close and personal is former All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who played with Kelce for five years and Mahomes for three. 

As a guest on Kevin Clark's "This Is Football," Schwartz talked about Kelce's innate ability to get open, even if it's not necessarily within the structure of the offense.

"I think where the magic happens and where the genius really shows is you can freelance, but if you're freelancing in the wrong areas, then you're just congesting an area that you know already has people in it," Schwartz said. "And if you don't know where to go, if you don't know where the other guys are on the field, then you're just going to make things worse. You're going to, one, not get open yourself, and two, ruin the other route concepts that are out there. So if you're not open, and then you're also messing up a two or three-man read, you just take the whole play and now the offense has no chance to do it. So Trav [Travis Kelce], I think, works within the framework of where he knows he is, then he also knows where the other guys are."

Schwartz continued to discuss how Mahomes sees defensive coverages the same way that Kelce does, and knows what Kelce is going to do before he does it.

"They have a good feel for it," Schwartz said. "You know, if we run this concept, this is what I'm going to do. But then there's also the aspect of Pat [Patrick Mahomes] knowing where he's going and trusting it. There are times where he'll [Kelce] run in-breaking routes, where he's supposed to run an out-breaking route, and the ball is still being thrown as or before he even makes that break because Pat sees the game the same way. They just feel it the same, and somehow the quarterback is able to get get rid of the ball before the tight end [Kelce] makes the decision that he's going to do something that's not on paper, and it's a catch and it's a touchdown. So yeah, seeing those things, understanding them, it's really cool. And to have two guys who are Hall of Famers, who are genius level football players, both physically and mentally, but also see the game the exact same way, it's really cool. It's really special."

Schwartz concluded that Mahomes and Kelce practice many of these situations, which prepares them to do things on the fly if necessary during games. 

"If Pat sees it's supposed to be an in-breaking route and the middle of the field is closed, he just senses there's this huge void out in space," Schwartz said. "He knows that Kelce is going to sense that space. And they practice it enough. Even though it's not a scripted thing, they practice that enough. And they know each other's tendencies so much that you know Pat can feel that. And Travis can also feel that, my quarterback is going to be right."

Some people think that success comes automatically for the Chiefs because of the collection of great talent that they have, but as Schwartz said, they practice the little things repetitively. Mahomes and Kelce are always on the same page because they put in the work to be there. It's what separates them from previous great tandems, and it's why they could accomplish the first Super Bowl three-peat in NFL history.