Most teams had him late-1st or 2nd round. It was not considered a stretch to take him late-1st because if a (good) team took him then, it wouldn't cripple their team. But to take him Top 10 or even Top 15 for a team that didn't make the playoffs (and didn't presumably have a veteran QB) was considered a big risk. KC was the perfect team: veteran team...plenty of weapons...OL...veteran QB that you can sit behind for 1 or 2 years. There were LOTS of QB's that showed some of what Mahomes did. Not to the same extent. Many flopped MISERABLY. The question was if he was surrounded by talent, would he eliminate the mistakes and up his game ? Clearly, he did. Mahomes is sort of the anti-USC QB. The USC guys play lots of weak teams with loaded USC teams. Mahomes played good teams with nobody.