The Scout Who Discovered Patrick Mahomes

It's an improbable story—a decade ago Brett Veach was scouting an offensive lineman at Texas Tech when the Red Raiders QB stole his attention. [View in Browser]( [Esquire Sunday Reads]( [The Scout Who Found Patrick Mahomes]( The Scout Who Found Patrick Mahomes When Brett Veach followed Andy Reid to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, he accepted a position as the team’s “pro and college personnel analyst,” a vague, undefined front‑office role that doubled as a blank canvas, a dream job for an upwardly mobile football scout. Veach worked under general manager John Dorsey, an archetypal football grunt with a general’s baritone voice and a habit of wearing the same gray sweatshirt, and Chris Ballard, a handsome, well‑coiffed director of pro personnel with a bright future. Veach did a little of everything—college scouting, pro personnel work; the job description was basically Let’s see what you got—but above all else, he watched tape of football players. Mahomes had just finished his sophomore season—just two years removed from Whitehouse High. He’d thrown for 4,653 yards as a sophomore and put up big numbers in the Red Raiders’ Air Raid offense, as most Texas Tech quarterbacks did, but owing to his quiet college recruitment and the fact he wasn’t eligible for the draft for another year, he wasn’t exactly on NFL radars. “Who is this guy?” Veach thought. To Veach, the question became an obsession. One day that spring, as he later recalled, he was grinding Mahomes tape on a quiet weekend inside the Chiefs’ offices when Andy Reid happened by. Reid was curious about what Veach was up to. Veach had a simple answer: He was watching the next quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs. [Read the Full Story]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE]( [The Taste of Her Care]( The Taste of Her Care The day my grandmother in Beijing died, I went out to dinner in New York. The meal was meant to be in her memory, but really, it spoke to the paucity of mine. 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Recently, we sat down to talk about the brand new cookware line, cooking with his family, and his life as a dinner party host. [Read the Full Story]( [LiveIntent Logo]( [AdChoices Logo]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice]( | [CA Notice at Collection]( Esquire is a publication of Hearst Magazines. ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This email was sent by Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3779