The QB who kept Patrick Mahomes on the bench at Texas Tech knew what was coming

Davis Webb was playing quarterback at Texas Tech despite a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder because he knew once he walked off the field, for whatever reason, he was on the bench for good.

He knew what was coming.

He saw it himself every day in practice.

Webb had already beaten out Baker Mayfield to keep this job once, but this new guy was different.

It was Patrick Mahomes.

“I knew Pat was going to be special, quick,” Webb said in an interview last week in Frisco before the Shrine Bowl. “He was super raw that first year (at Texas Tech, in 2014). He would miss an easy throw on first down. He would miss an easy throw on second down.

“On third down, he would make a throw that I had never seen before. You’re like, ‘He’s going to figure out the first and second down throws, and he has third down already.’”

Of all the people who have experienced The Patrick Mahomes Ride To Football Heaven, few experienced it like Webb. He was at Tech at the time under then head coach Kliff Kingsbury when NFL-caliber quarterbacks were on a red and black tractor beam to Lubbock.

As Mahomes prepares to play in yet another Super Bowl, and is already in the discussion as among the best to ever play the position, Webb can brag he saw some of this coming. Not all of it.

A lot of it.

Most of it.

“I watched Pat play twice in high school and you could see it then,” said Webb, who lived in both Keller and Prosper. He’s currently a quarterbacks coach for the Denver Broncos.

As a college teammate of Mahomes, Webb is often asked to recount camp fire ghost stories about their time together in Lubbock.

“In practices you were just like, ‘How did this happen? How did his mind say this can happen, and how did the ball go there?’” Webb said. “You would see it in his sophomore year. Those no-look passes.”

Mahomes was a freshman in 2014, and Webb was the starter.

“I went through the Baker Mayfield situation the year before and I didn’t want to give anyone a chance,” said Webb, who beat out Mayfield, who transferred to Oklahoma where he won the Heisman trophy.

Early in the ‘14 season, Webb sustained a torn labrum but played through it; when Tech played at TCU on Oct. 25, 2014, he suffered an ankle injury.

He left the game early in the second half, and Mahomes came in. TCU won, 82-27, and Mahomes finished 5-for-11 passing with a touchdown and an interception.

“My body was too banged up and I couldn’t play,” Webb said. “He came in and he played really well.”

Davis knew that was it.

Mahomes was named the starter for the 2015 season, with Webb as the backup.

Webb transferred to California after that season, to play for then Cal head coach Sonny Dykes.

Webb was a third-round pick of the New York Giants in the 2017 NFL Draft, and he lasted six seasons.

“If I told myself in the third grade that I would retire from the NFL after six seasons, at the age of 28, would I be OK with that?” Webb said. “The answer is yes.”

Webb maintained his friendship with Mahomes. When the Broncos played the Chiefs this season, twice, the two just chatted on the field for 30 minutes during pregame.

For a man who has reached the level of popularity, and fame, of Mahomes, 30 minutes is a big deal.

But Webb knew Mahomes before the name Patrick Mahomes meant something the world over. A person in Mahomes’ position knows Webb has no angle, and isn’t looking for anything.

They knew each other when they were teenagers, at Texas Tech. Before the NFL. Before money. Before fame.

“Every day back then we hung out,” Webb said. “He has not changed. That’s rare. He has been consistently, authentically himself.”

Davis Webb is one of the few who can say he saw this coming.

Not all of it.

A lot of it.

Most of it.

And he can always say he’s the guy who kept Patrick Mahomes on the bench at Texas Tech.