'Never Restricted Who I Was!' Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes on Commanders' Hiring of Kliff Kingsbury

The Washington Commanders are in a rebuild mode. They unloaded a pair of great defensive players this season at the trade deadline and now they're turning over the coaching staff. Out is Ron Rivera and in is former Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

Quinn is building is staff from the ground up and chose former Texas Tech and Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury to handle the duties of offensive coordinator.

Kingsbury oversaw the early stages of Patrick Mahomes' college career, recruiting him out of high school.

Speaking to the media this week ahead of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Mahomes offered a few kind words for his former coach.

“It’s someone who’s taught me a ton,” Mahomes said, via USA Today . “He got me, kind of out of high school, where I was a baseball player trying to play football. Basically, trying to be on my own. You’re leaving the household and kind of being on your own, and he helped me become who I am today.”

Kingsbury didn't restrict Mahomes and try and make him something he's not ... a mistake many coaches make with young quarterbacks. Rather, he let Mahomes' game develop naturally, and it was obviously the right move.

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“I think the biggest thing is, you see, with a lot of young quarterbacks is whenever they get to a coach, they kind of try to restrict them and kind of make them be this model of how the quarterback position is supposed to be played,” Mahomes said. “And I think he was early in the game of just saying, ‘Hey, let’s maximize your strengths.’ He would teach me here and there how to be more mechanical and get in the pocket and the fundamentals of the game, but he never restricted who I was.”