Eli Drinkwitz jokes about playing Chiefs: 'I don't know if Patrick Mahomes moves as good as LaNorris Sellers these days'

Not too far from Columbia is Kansas City, home of the Chiefs. The ability of Patrick Mahomes is well discussed, especially his top-tier ability to escape pressure and take off when needed. But Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz would argue Mahomes does not move like quarterbacks in the SEC.

“Well, we can’t cover (Travis) Kelce or stop Mahomes,” Drinkwitz said via The Paul Finebaum Show. “But I’ll say this — I don’t know if Mahomes moves as good as (LaNorris) Sellers does these days. I mean, that sucker is a real test and this league — you’ve got (Taylen) Green at Arkansas, (John) Mateer at OU. This thing ain’t no joke anymore.”

Missouri just got done defending Sellers, doing a pretty good job. He finished with -28 rushing yards on 10 attempts — five of which were sacks. The South Carolina quarterback’s longest run of the day was just seven yards. Drinkwitz has to be thrilled with how the Tigers did against one of the top dual-threat guys in the SEC.

Mateer and Green pop up in the final two games of the regular season, even if the former just suffered a hand injury. Drinkwitz gets five other conference games to worry about before facing those guys, some of which have mobile quarterbacks as well.

All this came after Finebaum asked Drinkwitz a hypothetical question — How do you cover Travis Kelce? While many NFL defensive coordinators have asked themselves the same thing over the years, this was a topic because of a joking proposal from the Missouri head coach.

“We all need lifetime contracts,” Drinkwitz said when discussing the new SEC schedule. “I mean, let’s be real. If we’re all going to coach in this marathon, I think the only other way we could generate more money is if we just schedule a preseason game with an NFL team. That would generate great ratings too and be even tougher on our programs. I mean, I’m right here with the Chiefs. Maybe we can get an August preseason game with them.”

Drinkwitz continues to be one of the best personalities in the SEC, never afraid to joke around or speak his mind on topics. But you could tell he meant the part about attempting to chase after quarterbacks in the league. Plenty of tough matchups exist out there, a lot of which somehow ended up on Missouri’s 2025 schedule with only eight conference games.