Patrick Mahomes on Josh Downs: You can tell the intellect, how he can pick things up

Published November 12, 2026 03:59 PM The Chiefs brought in a receiver at the trading deadline, acquiring Josh Downs from the Colts. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters in his Wednesday press conference that he’s excited to get going with the wideout.“I think you can tell just the intellect and how he’s able to pick stuff up and that he’s a professional, that he knows what he’s doing and he wants to come in and just compete and to have success, and he wants to win. And so, I’m excited for that,” Mahomes said, via transcript from the team. “And then you can just see him interacting with the other receivers in the room. You can tell that there’s going to be a great cohesion there, and that’s the type of guys you want on the team, that want to compete and that want to win.”Mahomes noted he’s impressed with the way Downs can win his one-on-one matchups.“He runs routes really well,” Mahomes said. “He sets them up really well where he will run a route early in the game that he sets up for another one later in the game. And then he has really good feel, you can tell, obviously, playing in the system that he has, he has a lot of read-type routes, and you can tell he knows how to get himself open, settle in the right zones, and win versus man [coverage] when he can. “And so, I think it will be an easy transition for him to kind of do that stuff in our offense. Then, with how we do things, he can play a lot of different positions as we move receivers and tight ends around.”The quarterback also sees it as realistic for Downs to play and contribute early on in his tenure with Kansas City. While that begins with plenty of reps at practice, Mahomes and the rest of the offense can direct Downs to where he needs to be during games if necessary.“[W]e do a great job of kind of moving guys in and out of every single position, and so guys know the entire concepts of the plays,” Mahomes said. “We’re very detailed with how we call the plays in the huddle, which will help him out a ton.“Then when he doesn’t know, being able to talk to me in the huddle or talk to the guys as they’re breaking the huddle, and that usually helps when the guys like each other. And so, it’s good to have a guy that you can tell everybody’s going to like, and that he has his head on the right way, and he’s going to make sure that he’s going to do whatever it takes to win.”In nine games with the Colts this year, Downs caught 33 passes for 354 yards with one touchdown.