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Mahomes emphasizes his character in Players' Tribune cover letter

Mark D. Smith / USA TODAY Sports

"Win football games."

That's Patrick Mahomes' singular career objective. The top quarterback prospect wrote a cover letter-style piece for The Players' Tribune in which he asked teams around the league to look beyond the quantifiable measurements that often dominates pre-draft coverage and focus on his natural football abilities, skills as a leader, and clutch gene.

"All of those things are important and, for the most part, they all involve football in some way," Mahomes wrote. "But they're still not quite football. They're not the same as being out there in a game, in the huddle with my team.

"Football is under the lights, facing the elements in front of 60,000 people. It's keeping your guys motivated, whatever the circumstances, and having the determination to bring your team back from seemingly certain defeat in the fourth quarter."

Mahomes is one of the most divisive prospects in this year's draft. He'll likely be a first-round pick, but many question how well he'll translate to the NFL after excelling in Texas Tech's Air Raid offense.

The young pivot hears these criticisms, but wants teams to know he's not the project some analysts have made him out to be.

"Everything that critics want to knock me on, I know I can fix with hard work. I am not a project quarterback," Mahomes wrote. "People who say that aren't really watching my tape. I know that I can make any throw, especially when my team needs a big play.

"In three years at Texas Tech, I learned a lot about leading an offense. So much of that has to do with earning respect in the locker room. Leaders set an example for others. I don't expect to walk in and know everything on the first day of training camp, but I am ready to get started on that process. Right away you'll see the type of player I am and, more important, the type of player I want to be in the huddle."

Mahomes will find out where he'll start his NFL journey on Thursday, and he's apparently itching to get started.

"I'm ready to start the journey to a championship," Mahomes wrote. "And, more than anything else in the world, I'm ready to suit up and play some football. The sooner we can get to it, the better.

"Just wait until you see me in the huddle."

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