In an excerpt from the book “Quarterback” by John Feinstein, Alex Smith and Andy Reid discuss how veteran QB’s tutelage of Patrick Mahomes has helped the Chiefs’ young star.

The following is excerpted from the book: QUARTERBACK: Inside the Most Important Position in the National Football League by John Feinstein Copyright © 2018 by John Feinstein Published by Doubleday, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

On the night the Kansas City Chief drafted Patrick Mahomes in April of 2017, Alex Smith knew his days in Kansas City were numbered. “You don’t trade up that high [the 10th pick] to take a quarterback with the idea that he’s going to sit for two years,” he said. “I knew my life wasn’t going to change right away but it was going to change.” Even knowing Mahomes was eventually going to take his job, Smith spent the 2017 season mentoring him—on and off the football field. “What he did for Patrick can’t be paid back in money,” Andy Reid said. “But I wouldn’t have expected anything different from Alex. That’s who he is.”

Smith had been in Kansas City for four seasons. The Chiefs had reached the playoffs on three of those occasions but had not made it to a conference championship game. Smith was about to turn thirty-three and had two years left on his contract.

“There’s a window for players,” he said. “Just like there’s a window for teams. I felt as if I was playing as well as I had ever played, but I also know football’s a business and that coaches and general managers have to try to be one step ahead when it comes to personnel. If they’re not, they become former coaches and general managers pretty quickly.”

Which is why Smith wasn’t terribly surprised when he got a text from Andy Reid two days prior to the draft letting him know that the Chiefs were planning to use a high draft pick on a quarterback. Who it would be and exactly when it would come, he didn’t say. The point of the text was to let Smith know the Chiefs were beginning to think about Life After Alex.