Patrick Mahomes Reacts to Eagles' Decision to Bench Jalen Hurts for Nate Sudfeld

Patrick Mahomes was among those surprised by the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback switch late in Sunday's game against the Washington Football Team.

The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback discussed the Eagles' decision to bench Jalen Hurts during an interview Monday on KCSP 610 Sports Radio:

"I mean, you never know what's going on inside the team or the organization, but just watching how he's played the past few weeks, it did kind of confuse me at the time. But you never know. For me, I would've wanted to play and finish out the season no matter what our record was, but whatever the coach thought was best for the team, he did, and you have to back that as a guy on the team."

The Eagles trailed 17-14 going into the fourth quarter when they replaced Hurts with Nate Sudfeld. The backup turned it over twice and failed to score in four drives.

Washington came away with a 20-14 win and clinched the NFC East title in the process.

The game didn't matter for Philadelphia, but it removed an additional opportunity to evaluate Hurts, a second-round rookie, as opposed to Sudfeld, a 2016 sixth-round pick with just four appearances in four years.

After limited playing time for most of the season, Hurts flashed potential in his four starts with two 300-yard passing games and one 100-yard rushing game.

The Eagles still have a tough decision going into the offseason whether to trust Hurts to run the show and get rid of Carson Wentz or keep both as a safety net.

Mahomes knows what it feels like to have to watch from the sideline, as he rode the bench behind Alex Smith his entire rookie year before starting Week 17. He had 284 passing yards in a win but zero touchdowns and one interception.

It certainly didn't foreshadow an MVP season just one year later, but the Chiefs moved on from Smith in the offseason and put Mahomes in charge of the offense.

Though Mahomes knows Hurts probably wanted to play more on Sunday, he clearly understood the coach makes the decision and respected the rookie for taking a back seat when asked.