Most people in this country are following Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, not so much to hear the latest gossip about Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s dating exploits, but rather to see how the ‘Defending Super Bowl Champions” are fairing in 2024.

Tuning in the television sports talk shows the other day, and listening to some popular sports pundits, revealed the topic of the day was centered around Patrick Mahomes. Specifically, the tv media pundits claimed Mahomes poor performance, this season, was responsible for the Kansas City Chiefs impending playoff doom.

It seems Patrick Mahomes has inherited the mainstream media tv pundits’ “Tom Brady contempt” syndrome.

The Mainstream Media Sports Pundits Cite Statistics to Claim Patrick Mahomes is “Over the Cliff”

You can imagine my surprise that some of these TV personalities were espousing views that Kansas City is not a Super Bowl contender this year and that Patrick Mahomes is washed up? Their opinions were based on last year’s lowered statistics, and this year’s projected lower statistics, versus his stats from 2017-2022. A head shaker for sure. 

While last years’ Mahomes statistics were in fact lower than prior years, the Chiefs still managed to win the Super Bowl last year. This years statistics are also currently lower for Mahomes than prior years at this time of the season. Yet the Chiefs are currently 11-1. Of course, for the mainstream sports media’s tv personalities, blaming Mahomes for the Kansas City Chiefs’ supposed impending doom,  is par for their course…and that’s the problem right there in a nutshell. 

So let’s briefly examine Patrick Mahome’s statistics to date for 2024. So far this season, Patrick Mahomes has 292 completions out of 427 passing attempts for a total of 2,979 passing yards. He has thrown for 19 touchdowns. But he has also thrown 11 interceptions. If he continues on this pace, Mahomes is projected to throw 414 completions in 605 attempts for a total of 4,220 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. While certainly not MVP caliber stats, by the end of the season his stats will be equal to or better than his stats for last year.

Last year, 2023, in 16 games played, Mahomes only threw 401 completions out of 597 attempts for a total of 4,183 total passing yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, for 63.9 QBR. But as was stated above, Patrick Mahomes, and the Kansas City Chiefs still managed to win the 2023 season’s Super Bowl.

The Pundits Claims the Chiefs Can’t “3 Peat” is Based on Their Love for Parity and Need to Sell Commercial Spots

So, why are these pundits all up in arms about the Chiefs current 11-1 performance and particularly with Patrick Mahomes’ current stats? Well, for one, they need to drum up controversy so people will tune in and they sell ads. Many of them also have disdain for “a winner”.  Let’s call it “The New England Patriots Syndrome”. During the Patriots’ dynasty, the more Super Bowls they won, the more the mainstream media sports pundits jumped on the “Nay-Sayer” bandwagon.

This is one of the issues affecting the mainstream sports media’s reporting on Chiefs right now. There is a group of them that apparently believe if the Chiefs make the Super Bowl it will somehow be bad for the game. If the Chiefs win this years 2025 Super Bowl, they will have done what no other team in NFL history has done…”Three Peat”. The mainstream media hates that! They are all about “NFL parity”. 

Patrick Mahomes is Still Dangerous Despite the TV Pundits’ Citing His Falling Stats

Another group of mainstream media sports pundits apparently believes the Kansas City Chiefs can’t win the Super Bowl this year. They cite Mahomes’ current play not being up to the task this season. To bolster their opinions they point out that in 2022, Mahomes threw 435 completions out of 648 attempts for 5,250 yards, 41 touchdowns with only 12 interceptions for a 79.0 QBR 

They further point out that, prior to 2022, over a period of four full seasons, averaging 15 games per season, Mahomes was progressively improving with each passing year…until he reached, what so far has been his pinnacle season of 2022. According to this group of mainstream media tv pundits, that’s when disaster hit.

In 2023, Mahomes numbers took a noticeable dip. While he did complete 401 of 597 attempts for a 67.1 completion percentage, he only totaled 4,183 passing yards 1,067 yards less than in 2022. He totaled only 27 touchdowns while throwing a career high 14 interceptions. This group of mainstream sports media personalities state that in the past two years, Mahomes’ statistical numbers have been substantially subdued, and as such, he has fallen-off the proverbial “quarterback cliff”

Patrick Mahomes is Just Coming Into His Prime as a Quarterback

After a good amount of laughing, I remembered that Patrick Mahomes is only 29 years of age. He will be 30 on September 17, 2025, just coming into his “quarterback prime”. I also remembered all of the talent the Kansas City Chiefs lost over the past two seasons, since Mahomes  banner year of 2022: Orlando Brown, Jr., Jaun Thornhill, Darius Harris, Khalen Saunders, Andrew Wylie. Of note after 2023, the Chiefs lost: Mike Edwards, Willie Gay, Jr., Nick Allegretti, L’Jarius Sneed. Also this year the Chiefs lost wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and cornerback Jaylen Smith to injury during this season.

Yet the Kansas City Chiefs have managed to continue their winning ways despite losing valuable talent over the past two years. It certainly can be argued that the loss of several key offensive lineman and a number one wide receiver might account for Mahomes’ reduced passing statistics over the last two years. 

But even the great Tom Brady had down seasons where he won the Super Bowl with what appeared to be less than stellar talent on the team. In 2019, the New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams by a score of only 13-3, the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. While Brady had the services of wide receiver, Julian Edelman and running back, Sony Michel, he had only limited services of a wounded Rob Gronkowski, who despite being in severe pain, caught a 30 yard pass to take the ball down to the two yard line, setting up the winning touchdown plunge by Sony Michel with 7:33 remaining on the clock in the fourth quarter. 

Mahomes has faced the same adversities this year with both loss of personnel from the off season and injuries this season. Yet Mahomes, and the Chiefs, have found a way to win the close games.  The great ones find a way to succeed As Brady has often said: “Its tough to win a football game in the NFL.” 

Believe the G.O.A.T…Not the TV Pundits

More recently Brady commented on The Herd with Collin Cowerd directly on the Chiefs “close game wins this season:

“To win the close game is always a mark of a really good football team, to win when you’re not playing your best footballs a mark of a very good team…I just think the Chiefs are so dangerous because if it’s a one score game in the fourth quarter and Patrick has the ball, he’s incredible…he’s so dangerous because then he has four downs late in the game, where you gotta stop him for four downs, not three….Patrick is going to manage the game well, he’s going to throw to the open guy…make the right decisions in the big moments like we’ve seen time and time again. The organization does so many things the right way, they’re going to be tough to beat in the playoffs”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U42ynw6QqEU

The G.O.A.T. has found an unrelenting vote of confidence in Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs chances in returning to the Super Bowl . I’ll take that endorsement over the mainstream sports media pundits’ opinions any day of the week!

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