Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

Caleb Williams and Patrick Mahomes share some of the same skills. And they each have offensive guru Kliff Kingsbury in common.

A decade ago, Kingsbury recruited Mahomes at Texas Tech when Kingsbury was the new head coach. The two native Texans excelled in Lubbock running Kingsbury’s up-tempo offense, which still was kind of new to the college scene. Flash forward seven years, and Kingsbury helped mentor Williams out at USC when he worked as a senior offensive analyst. Lincoln Riley, who was Williams’ head coach at Oklahoma and with the Trojans, and Kingsbury both learned the offense at the knee of the late Mike Leach, who coached at Tech from 2000 through 2009.

But NFL Network draft guru Daniel Jeremiah also sees something Caleb Williams and Patrick Mahomes have in common. Hint, it’s not just Six Degrees of Separation with Kingsbury. Rather, both quarterbacks faced the stress of having to score more points because of their respective team’s porous defenses.

“Mahomes’ situation at Texas Tech was, I thought, very similar to Caleb’s situation at USC,” Jeremiah said this week during a media teleconference. “Pat’s last year at Texas Tech, they were 128th in scoring defense. (In 2023) USC was 121st. (Williams) was constantly chasing points. I thought that led to some of the habits that creeped in a little bit.

“He lost eight games at USC,” Jeremiah said. “They gave up an average of 43 points in those games. He was 12-0 when they managed to allow less than 34 points. It’s tough to play quarterback when you’re chasing points like that constantly.”
Patrick Mahomes, seen here at Texas Tech, has several traits in common with Caleb Williams. Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
But there is one big difference between Patrick Mahomes and Caleb Williams. Mahomes is the toast of the NFL these days. He earned this third Super Bowl ring and his third MVP trophy earlier this month. But back in Lubbock, Mahomes led the nation in passing. Yet never won more than seven games, nor did he make first team All Big 12. Rather, Baker Mayfield edged him for that. And Mahomes’ best post season game was the Texas Bowl.

Conversely, Williams stayed in the limelight. After transferring from OU to USC, he won the Heisman as a sophomore. But the Trojans underachieved last fall, dropping to 8-5.

And here’s another major difference between the two. Williams is coming into the NFL draft process as the top guy. But back in 2017, Mahomes was kind of an after thought early in scouting season. However, he evolved into an acid hot prospect, although Mitch Trubisky was the first quarterback off the board. The Chiefs selected Mahomes with the 10th pick.

Jeremiah acknowledged what the two quarterbacks have in common.

“You don’t want to compare somebody to the best player on the planet,” Jeremiah said. “But just in terms of how (Williams) kind of plays, with the creativity and a little flair and all the different throws he can make in terms of driving the ball, layering the ball, extending plays. All those things, there are similarities there.”

Mahomes “needed some time to clean things up and got a chance to sit for a year (in Kansas City),” Jeremiah said. “Obviously, I don’t think Caleb is going to be afforded the same luxury in that department. But I think you can put a plan in place where you put more on his plate the longer that he goes.”