Cardinals’ Kingsbury: It will be ‘surreal’ playing vs. Chiefs QB Mahomes

It is officially game week for the Arizona Cardinals and first up on the docket is Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at State Farm Stadium on Sunday.

Mahomes has played once against the Cardinals and head coach Kliff Kingsbury, but it was a preseason game in 2021 that the Chiefs QB briefly appeared in.

He was the quarterback at Texas Tech from 2014-16 while Cardinals’ Kingsbury was the head coach of the Red Raiders.

In his junior and final season in Lubbock, Mahomes threw for 5,052 yards and 41 touchdowns while completing 65.7 percent of his passes. His first starting season as a sophomore wasn’t too far off, either, recording 36 touchdowns and 4,653 yards passing.

“He’s a decent player. It will be a little surreal going against him,” Kingsbury told reporters Monday. “It will be fun, it will be fun for Texas Tech people as well.”

Kingsbury said he stays in contact with Mahomes as the two are in a group chat that chat about Texas Tech football and were “fired up” over the Week 1 win.

The Cardinals head coach said he is most proud of how Mahomes has grown as a person, rather than the star he is on the field.

“Just really proud of the person more than anything,” Kingsbury said.

“Just watching the way he has grown up, the leadership qualities he’s shown on and off the field. Anytime you watch him in any of those arenas, just how socially responsible he is, how he leads, how he treats people, the stuff he does in the community with charities and he runs the gambit of what you want a sports star to be like and carry himself.”