KANSAS CITY Ugo Amadi Jersey , Mo. (AP) —Texans counterpart Deshaun Watson goes back well beyond the 2017 draft, when along with Mitchell Trubisky they were considered among the best prospects at their position.It goes back to their college days, when Mahomes was orchestrating the “Air Raid” offense at Texas Tech and Watson was trying to navigate Clemson to a national championship.“I think we were going into our junior year,” Mahomes recalled, “and we went to a QB camp out in California. I talked to him, back and forth, about how he did his stuff at Clemson, how I did my stuff at Texas Tech. He’s a great player. We kind of hit it off.”Article continues below ...They stayed in touch during the draft process, too.“We took a lot of the same visits,” Mahomes said, “and we went to the same places, and we would talk to each other about what we went through. But we didn’t necessarily knew where we would go.”Nobody did.Trubisky wound up going second overall to Chicago. And when nobody grabbed a quarterback in the next eight picks, the Chiefs traded up to No. 10 and chose Mahomes over Watson as the heir apparent to Alex Smith. Watson wound up going two picks later to the Texans.All three quarterbacks have flourished to some extent. On Sunday, two of them will get to square off when Mahomes leads the Chiefs (4-1) against Watson and the Texans (3-2) at Arrowhead Stadium.“He’s been doing a heck of a job putting the Chiefs in contention each and every game, and putting up a lot of great numbers,” Watson said, “because that’s what he’s been doing his whole career http://www.bengalsauthorizedshops.com/a … ple-jersey , and just being that leader — he’s doing a heck of a job for that organization.”Yes, it was Mahomes who rewrote the record books during his MVP season a year ago, and he is off to another blazing start this season. But it is Watson who comes into the AFC showdown with the hot hand, having thrown for 426 yards and five touchdowns while running for 47 yards last week against Atlanta.“He’s a heck of a player. We had him in here before the draft,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “We thought the world of him. I know he was a heck of a player in college and he carried it over and he’s playing really good football. I don’t know exactly what they’re asking and not asking him to do, but whatever they’re asking him to do, he’s doing it well.”The matchup Sunday is more than just Mahomes vs. Watson, though. Here are some other story lines:INJURY BUGThe Chiefs hope to get wide receiver Tyreek Hill on the field for the first time since breaking his collarbone Week 1 in Jacksonville. But they are poised to play without several key players, such as wide receiver Sammy Watkins (hamstring), defensive tackle Chris Jones (groin) and left guard Andrew Wylie (ankle).INJURY BUG, PART IITexans wide receiver Kenny Still is still recovering from a hamstring injury, though it appears his bothersome ankle is finally better. Elsewhere, interior offensive lineman Greg Mancz has been out with a concussion and running back Taiwan Jones has been slowed by a hip injury.MANO-A-MANOThe Colts slowed down the Chiefs by playing a bunch of man-to-man defense, and the Texans are likely to follow the same blueprint. But the Chiefs also have spent the week trying to fix their issues from last week, resulting in an intriguing offense-defense chess match Sunday.“They obviously played a great game,” Texans defensive end J.J. Watt said of the Colts. “They went in there and stuck to their game plan and executed very well and came out with the win.”BEWARE THE HONEY BADGERTyrann Mathieu picked off his first pass as a member of the Chiefs last week, and he’d like nothing more than to get his second against the Texans. Mathieu had a big year with Houston last season http://www.oaklandraidersteamonline.com … len-jersey , and the club wanted to keep him around, only to see the Chiefs win the bidding in free agency.12 ANGRY MENOne of the most effective personnel groups for Houston this season has been “12 personnel,” which means a set with one running back and two tight ends. But why has it worked so well?“It’s a good question,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “It has a lot to do with what you’re going to see defensively. We’ve got a lot of different combinations of personnel groupings we can use and we try to study and we try to think about, defensively, how they’re going to attack it. ‘What personnel are they going to use? What’s going to be their scheme, and how does that fit what we want to do?’ … And sometimes it works. Hopefully it works more than it doesn’t.” The recent effort by NFL senior V.P. of officiating Al Riveron to explain the new pass interference replay review to members of NFL Media continues to generate new reasons to be concerned that the league’s effort to avoid another Rams-Saints debacle will lead to more, not less, controversy.Last week, Mike Giardi of NFL Media disclosed that Riveron (who usually conducts these sessions with networks on an off-the-record basis) explained that a Week 15 defensive pass interference call against Chiefs cornerback Kendall Fuller would have become offsetting interference fouls on replay review, given that Chargers receiver Mike Williams used his arm to get separation. This sparked several PFT articles regarding the potential impact of this approach on replay review of pass interference, with the overriding question being whether 17 replay officials will consistently apply the same standard when determining whether to activate a full-blown replay review based on whether offensive or defensive pass interference did or didn’t happen.Expanding on the information disclosed by Giardi, Rich Eisen of NFL Media explains in a guest appearance at Football Morning in America that Riveron also pointed to a controversial non-call from Super Bowl LIII, which resulted in Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore not being flagged for pass interference on Rams receiver Brandin Cooks. Eisen writes that Riveron explained to the NFL Media employees that the new procedure would have resulted in a flag being thrown on Gilmore for defensive pass interference.Because it happened with more than two minutes left in the game, Rams coach Sean McVay would have been required to throw a red challenge flag to initiate replay review. Implicit in Riveron’s belief that replay review would have triggered a penalty flag on Gilmore is the reality that, if Riveron believes that clear and obvious evidence of an error existed to justify overturning the ruling on the field, clear and obvious evidence would have existed to initiate an automatic review under the heightened standard for replay-review gatekeeping when pass interference is at issue.Watch the play. Is it clear and obvious that Gilmore significantly hindered Cooks? Gilmore definitely makes contact with Cooks http://www.oaklandraidersteamonline.com … son-jersey , but Cooks still is able to nearly catch the ball. Yes, Gilmore hooks Cooks’ left arm, but Cooks still pulls his arm up and puts it in position for the reception, with only a legal blow delivered by Patriots safety Duron Harmon (and/or the impending blow from Harmon) causing Cooks to lose control of the ball.So is it clear and obvious that Gilmore significantly hindered Cooks? I don’t think it is.Flip it around. If pass interference had been called, would if have been clear and obvious that Gilmore didn’t significantly hinder Cooks? No. Which means that, regardless of the call, the ruling on the field arguably should stand.Riveron obviously thinks otherwise. Unless the NFL plans to replace Riveron before the start of the season, he’ll be the ultimate internal authority on matters of this nature for 2019. Based on his mishandling of multiple catch/no-catch rulings in 2017, concern lingers in league circles regarding Riveron’s ability to apply relevant standards consistently and accurately in real time. The explanations provided by Riveron in connection with the Super Bowl LIII and Chargers-Chiefs plays potentially amplifies the concern that the effort to prevent another Rams-Saints outcome will result in other situations involving far less clear and/or obvious interference calls and non-calls being overturned, when they just shouldn’t be.So, yes, this will continue to be a major potential problem as the NFL’s 100th season approaches. And if the procedure is applied the way that Riveron seems to believe it should be applied, the league’s first three-digit campaign could be remembered for the regular torrent of four-letter words that it provokes.