Patrick Mahomes Vs The Man He Replaced: Can Davis Webb Outsmart His Old Texas Tech Rival On Monday Night Football?

Patrick Mahomes makes his return from a torn ACL and LCL on Monday Night Football against the Denver Broncos, and the subplot running beneath that story is hard to ignore. On the other sideline stands Davis Webb, Broncos offensive coordinator at just 31, making his play-calling debut in Kansas City. These two men shared a quarterback room at Texas Tech over a decade ago. One went on to win three Super Bowls. The other lost his starting job and eventually found a different path to the same stage. Monday night, that path leads straight to Arrowhead.

What is the history between Patrick Mahomes and Davis Webb at Texas Tech?

The story goes back to 2014. Webb was Texas Tech's starting quarterback as a sophomore when a season-ending ankle injury against TCU opened the door for Mahomes, then a freshman, to step in. The following year, Webb lost the starting job to Mahomes late in the season and eventually transferred to California to finish his college career.

It was not a bitter parting by all accounts, but it was final. Mahomes put up 415 yards against Iowa State and 462 against West Virginia in a 2013 freshman season that turned heads across the country. By 2015, there was simply no competing with that. Webb transferred. Mahomes became the face of a franchise.

What makes this Monday night different is that Webb's arc did not stall after that. He put up big numbers at both Texas Tech and California before spending six seasons as an NFL backup with the Giants, Jets, and Bills. Then, rather than disappear into early retirement, he pivoted to coaching. Webb joined Denver's staff as quarterbacks coach in 2023 and played a direct role in Bo Nix's development over the past two seasons.

Zach Kittley, who coached both men at Texas Tech and now heads Florida Atlantic's program, keeps autographed jerseys of Mahomes and Webb on his office wall. His perspective is worth noting. "Davis is one of the top offensive minds right now and I have no doubt he'll probably be a head coach in 2027. And then, clearly with what Patrick is doing, he's the best player on the planet. And to realize that those two guys were in the same quarterback room together brings back some great memories," Kittley said.

Why is Davis Webb's coordinator debut against the Chiefs such a big deal?

Sean Payton, who held play-calling duties across 18 seasons as an NFL head coach, handed that responsibility to Webb heading into 2026, a decision he described as something he would only do if it genuinely helped the team. That is not a small thing. Payton's offense, his philosophy, his fingerprints on every game plan, now filtered through a 31-year-old making his coordinator debut on the league's biggest Monday stage.

"One reason I wanted to be here was with Sean here. I trust him. He trusts me. We think very similar. I know how he wants the game to be played. It's the same offense for the most part, just little tweaks here and there. But this is a Sean Payton-coached football team with a Sean Payton offensive philosophy," Webb said.

That trust has been earned. Baltimore, Buffalo, and Las Vegas all interviewed Webb for head coaching roles this past offseason, despite him never having called plays at the coordinator level. Denver kept him by promoting him instead.

Now he faces Mahomes, returning from a torn ACL, hungry, and pitching for a franchise that went 6-11 last year without him. "I want to be ready for Week 1. The doctors said I could," Mahomes said earlier this year. "That's the goal, to play Week 1 and have no restrictions."

That goal is now reality. The man who took Webb's starting job is back under centre. The man who lost it is holding the play sheet. There is no tidy narrative here, just two guys from the same quarterback room in Lubbock, Texas, meeting on the biggest football night of the week with something to prove.