Patrick Mahomes expressed a desire to join the Chicago Bears, and the Chiefs’ star quarterback teased the NFL team for their draft decision

Patrick Mahomes should have been a No. 1 draft pick.

That’s obvious now, after Mahomes has become the new face of the NFL and led the Kansas City Chiefs to a dynasty.

But before Mahomes was a three-time Super Bowl winner throwing touchdowns to Travis Kelce and occasionally hanging out with Taylor Swift, the son of a baseball pitcher was just a big-armed college quarterback from Texas Tech.

There was a talented QB from North Carolina who had more NFL upside, according to many draft experts.

And the Chicago Bears.

On Thursday in Detroit, the regularly rebuilding Bears are expected to make Caleb Williams the No. 1 pick of the 2024 draft.

Back in 2017, Mitch Trubisky was a rising name on draft boards, while Mahomes was viewed as a risky pick who had inflated numbers playing in the wide open Big 12.

Chicago increasingly became infatuated with Trubisky, who didn’t become a full-time starter at North Carolina until his junior year.

The Bears liked the relatively unproven Tar Heels QB so much that they traded with the San Francisco 49ers to move up in a draft that featured top prospects such as Myles Garrett, Christian McCaffrey, Marlon Humphrey, Jamal Adams, Marshon Lattimore and Deshaun Watson.

With the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft, Chicago took Trubisky.

“I was the 10th player picked, right? The Bears had a chance,” said a TV announcer, as he imagined Mahomes’ inner thoughts.

“They told him they were going to draft him,” the star QB’s dad, Pat Sr. told Chicago’s 670 The Score in 2023. “We thought he was going to be the third pick overall and go to Chicago.

“He had a great meeting when he went there and liked all the guys that were doing the stuff there and thought he was going to be a Bear. Then once they traded up and got Mitch, it kind of hurt him. It really did. He always knew that Kansas City had told him that they were going to come up and get him. They just didn’t know how far they’d have to go. But initially, he thought he was going to be a Chicago Bear.”