Cardinals president: Don’t read much into private workout with Patrick Mahomes

Some Arizona Cardinals fans likely fell into a tizzy when they learned the team held a private workout with Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes.

The report came from NFL insider Aaron Wilson, and in it he said the passer “excelled for large contingent of staffers,” which apparently included Cardinals president Michael Bidwill.

This would seem notable because Mahomes is viewed as one of the draft’s better quarterback prospects, and the Cardinals just so happen to be interested in selecting a quarterback.

It could be a match made in draft heaven, but according to Bidwill, him attending the private workout does not mean all that much.

“It’s funny, because each year I go to the Scouting Combine and I let the personnel people do their thing,” Bidwill told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Thursday morning. “Steve and his team with the input of Bruce and the coaching staff do a great job, but I attend all those scouting activities and I attend private workouts.

“I attend them every year; some of them, people report on, some of them people never report on — we never really announced which ones I go to and which ones I don’t.”

Bidwill said he attends the workouts when his schedule allows it because he likes being at them to get a better idea of potential draft picks.

Last season, Mahomes threw for 5,052 yards and 41 touchdowns with 10 interceptions, and in three years with the Red Raiders he passed for 11,252 yards and 93 touchdowns, with just 29 picks.

The 6-foot-3 quarterback has excellent production and good size for the position, but comes with the question mark of coming from an offense that is nothing like what he would be running at the NFL level for a team like the Cardinals.

So if the Cardinals are indeed interested, it makes sense to learn as much about him as possible.

“Patrick Mahomes is one we weren’t able to schedule at the Combine this year, and that was an important one because, again, all the top prospects I meet every year, and whether it’s at the Combine, it’s at our training facility or, on occasion, with private workouts,” Bidwill said. “I’m going to be attending many more private workouts this year — I’m not sure all of them will be leaked out to the media or whatever, but don’t read anything into that.”

As so often happens this time of year, Bidwill could be throwing up a smoke screen in an effort to hide his team’s true intentions. In fact, a collection of mock drafts shows Mahomes isn’t really on Arizona’s radar, at least in the first round.

That said, Mahomes would make a lot of sense for the Cardinals, perhaps even as high as pick No. 13. In a draft with no sure-thing at the position, he would seem to fit the mold of the kind of quarterback head coach Bruce Arians would like to bring on board.

But if Bidwill is to be believed, his involvement in the scouting of a QB who accounted for 115 total touchdowns in three years with Texas Tech really carries no extra meaning.

“We haven’t organized our board yet, we’re in the evaluation process,” he said. “Patrick Mahomes had a great college career, but there are other quarterbacks out there and other players at other positions that have had great careers at their positions, and we’re still evaluating them all.

“Again, I think there was a lot made out of that, but don’t read too much into it.”

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