Chiefs wide receiver Tyquan Thornton led the team with five catches for 71 yards and a touchdown in Sunday night’s win over the Giants, including a spectacular catch at the 1-yard line that was one of the most spectacular plays of this NFL season. But after the game, Patrick Mahomes talked about a catch Thornton made a few plays before that — on a pass that Mahomes didn’t even intend for him.
Mahomes said that when he connected with Thornton for 21 yards on a third-and-6, the pass was actually intended for wide receiver Hollywood Brown. But Mahomes had Giants defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence bearing down on him and just needed to heave the ball downfield, and he didn’t even know what happened until he heard the crowd, then saw the replay.
“I was throwing it to Hollywood who was open, but Tyquan was running a post,” Mahomes said. “I saw Hollywood but I also saw Dexter Lawrence. I was trying to throw it to a spot and I heard the crowd reacting, and then I looked up and the guy I wasn’t throwing to caught it.”
A former second-round pick of the Patriots, Thornton was a disappointment in New England and got cut late last season. Kansas City picked him up on the practice squad for the end of last year and then brought him back this year, and Mahomes said he has developed a rapport with Thornton.
“He would come in, he’d get in those practices sometimes and guys were banged up at the end of the season, he’d come in and run those deeper routes, and I’d throw to him just to see what he had and you could see he had juice,” Mahomes said. “Getting into OTAs and training camp, he was down there working with me in Texas, so I knew he was going to be a good football player, but he’s even exceeding my expectations. He’s stepping up, whenever the opportunity is provided for him.”
That includes stepping up for opportunities that were meant for someone else.
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