A few days before the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl in January 2017, Chris Cabott and Brett Veach huddled in a quiet hallway outside of a Los Angeles hotel ballroom.

The discussion they’d have that day — about a quarterback prospect out of Texas Tech named Patrick Mahomes II — would shape the direction of the Kansas City Chiefs for years to come, though no one would have guessed that at the time.

Cabott, who co-represented Mahomes with Leigh Steinberg, was trying to convince NFL teams and draft pundits that Mahomes was more than a reckless gunslinger, someone who should be a first-round pick in the coming months. This was long before Mahomes became one of the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL entering Sunday, sporting a 143.3 rating with 10 touchdown passes, 582 passing yards and zero interceptions after two games.

Veach, the Chiefs’ co-director of player personnel, was a mere lieutenant for general manager John Dorsey. But he had long earned the trust of head coach Andy Reid, who was given the same power as Dorsey within the Chiefs’ organization, and held significant sway. And that mattered because Reid never forgot Veach’s strong — and endearingly overbearing, he’d tell you — recommendations to draft DeSean Jackson, Fletcher Cox and LeSean McCoy, way back when Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and Veach was a scout there.

View photos Patrick Mahomes II caught the eye of the Chiefs’ Brett Veach, a gaze that wouldn’t let up heading into the 2017 draft. (AP) More

So as Cox, Jackson and McCoy all blossomed into Pro Bowlers in Philly, Reid came to value Veach’s opinion more and more. And Veach, who was eager for his next score after following Reid to Kansas City in 2013, was convinced he’d found his next gem in Mahomes. He grew infatuated with the strong-armed Texan over the previous 12 months, when the Chiefs were tasked with finding a gifted young quarterback to develop behind incumbent starter, Alex Smith.

So when Veach bumped into Cabott that day, he had an agenda. He wanted to start a running dialogue about Mahomes with Cabott, another ambitious, fast-talking East Coaster in his late 30s. The two bonded easily over big dreams and a love of football, which was a prime reason Veach wasn’t too worried about showing his cards, even though another agent might have used his interest in Mahomes as a means to drum up more curiosity from other teams.

“Oh yeah, you’ve got Mahomes,” Veach said, prompting Cabott to answer in the affirmative. “We’re really serious about Patrick.”

Veach did not know that the latter sentence was music to Cabott’s ears. Everyone loved Mahomes’ gun, gusto and improvisational ability, but prognosticators still had him pegged as a second- to third-round pick, largely due to his raw footwork and the fact that an air raid quarterback had never made it big in the NFL.

But now, finally, someone else believed.

Cabott grinned.

“Good — and I’m serious about him, too,” Cabott said. “I think he’s special, a once-in-a-decade type talent.”

“Agreed,” Veach said.

Rallying the troops around Mahomes

At that very moment, the two reveled in their shared understanding, and began talking candidly about the rifle-armed kid they both believed would be a star, and how he’d be a perfect fit for the Chiefs.

So if you want to know the Mahomes origins story involving the Chiefs, this is as good a place to start as any. Over the next three months after that meeting in L.A., Cabott says that without fail, he’d hear from Veach, who always wanted to know the latest on his guy.

“For like 94 straight days, we literally communicated in some way, shape or form,” Cabott told Yahoo Sports. “We established a rapport where Brett was like, ‘anything about Patrick, I want to know.’”

Cabott respected Veach’s aggression and persistence. He wanted to know how Mahomes did in workouts. He wanted to know how his injured wrist was healing. He wanted to know the details of Mahomes’ passing script for his pro day workout at Texas Tech.

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