The Kansas City Chiefs — like nearly every game since they drafted him — will rely onQB Patrick Mahomes to win the game when they face the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Mahomes has taken the Chiefs to the AFC Championship in every season he’s been a starter in Kansas City. On Sunday, he’s competing for his third Super Bowl ring and has taken the Chiefs to the big game four of the past five seasons.
The NFL world hasn’t seen the greatness Mahomes brings to the NFL since Tom Brady and there are already people crowning the Kansas City Chiefs QB as the “greatest of all time.”
Brady has seven Super Bowl rings so Patrick Mahomes clearly has a long way to go before reaching that status, but he brings a moxie and swagger to the game that is changing the league.
His style is so unique, it has teams losing their minds over the prospect of USC QB Caleb Williams, who is the closest thing we have seen to Mahomes when it comes to moving around in the pocket, escaping sacks, extending plays with his legs and connecting with receivers on passes that seem ridiculous, but work to perfection for those rare athletes.
When it comes to the Brady vs. Mahomes debate, it becomes a difficult discussion. Ultimately, Mahomes still has so much football left ahead so we can only wait to see if he will catch Brady’s number of Super Bowl rings. But from a sheer talent, generational standpoint? Brady may have been the best pocket passer of all time, but Mahomes is the most unique QB we have ever seen at the position.
Patrick Mahomes seems to have that same level of mental sharpness, but with even more tools. Mahomes’ arm is bigger. He is faster and bigger than Brady. And yes, we’ve obviously seen 99 percent of NFL quarterbacks enter the league looking more “pro ready” than Brady, who went to the 2000 Indianapolis Scouting Combine looking like a father of three who spent too much time drinking and grilling on his speedboat. But the Kansas City Chiefs QB uses his physical tools in a way that we’ve never seen a player do before.
Mahomes is the most creative quarterback to have ever lived.
He isn’t just another quarterback whose tools eclipse those of Brady. Mahomes has the tools and the mental toughness to go toe-to-toe with Brady’s legacy. The reason we know that is simple: Mahomes has been an NFL starter for six years and is about to appear in his fourth Super Bowl. And maybe he’ll have three trophies by Sunday night. By Brady’s fourth season as a starter, he also had four Super Bowl appearances and three championships. When Brady got his third, he was younger than Mahomes is now. So in a few senses, Brady is ahead of the Chiefs QB. But there’s still time for Mahomes.
While it may take a while to even come close for Mahomes to catch Brady, it’s not hard to look around the league and the prospects coming out of college to see NFL teams now prioritize a mobile QB who can extend plays with his legs over the traditional pocket passer.
Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Has Shocking Message For Teams Who Thinks He’s A Slow Runner
Mahomes will never be confused as a runner with, say, the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson. But he joked that he doesn’t get enough respect for that part of his game.
“I’ve told a lot of people I’m faster than people think,” Mahomes said. “I don’t run pretty, so people think I’m slow, but I move a little bit better than people think.
“Maybe one day I’ll get a spy. That’s my goal. If I get a spy, I’ll know I made it.”
Patrick Mahomes has two career 50-plus-yard rushing games against the Los Angeles Chargers. Linebacker Drue Tranquill, in his first season with the Chiefs after four with the Chargers, overheard Mahomes’ request for a defensive spy and said, “We didn’t spy him for four years and we paid the price.”
Tranquil then elaborated on the dual-threat ability that makes the Kansas City Chiefs star so dangerous.
“That’s why [Mahomes] is the greatest in the world. Even on a night when he throws two or three picks, whatever it was, for him to be able to convert on third-and-20 with his legs, for him to be able to convert on third-and-8 down there to close out the game … it speaks to the toughness and the grit of the entire offensive personnel and then the belief this organization has in [Mahomes] to get the job done.”
Heading into the Super Bowl matchup vs. the 49ers, the Chiefs QB was asked about his running style and the perception from opposing defenses that he runs awkwardly or isn’t that fast.
Patrick Mahomes on his running style:
"People think I'm slow. I think it's kind of deceptive. I think the defense takes bad angles" 😅 pic.twitter.com/ULTtPfSNN5
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 7, 2024
“I think I’ve gotten better in my running form and faster since I’ve been in the NFL, but it doesn’t look the prettiest so people kind of think I’m slow, I think it’s kind of deceptive,” Mahomes said.
“Sometimes I think the defense takes bad angles because they think they are going to catch me faster than they do, so maybe that’s the secret to my speed is that I run a way that not everybody else runs.”
He didn’t hold back, that’s for sure.