Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has put up absurd stats, and doesn’t shy away from the inevitable comparisons between himself and the all-time greats at the position. Despite only beginning his full-time starting tenure in 2018, Mahomes is already considered by many among the top handful of QBs of all-time. Who would you put above him? Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, and maybe Drew Brees? Toss in John Elway and Dan Marino, too. That’s about where the list ends for me before Mahomes is brought up. He’s already won as many Super Bowls as Peyton and Brees combined.
Longevity is about the only thing standing in Mahomes’ way from being at least the second-best ever. One thing that could put his legacy over the top is capping off the first-ever three-peat this coming season. That’s another almost unfathomable achievement the 28-year-old living legend doesn’t back down from at all. In fact, in an interview with Logan Paul in the Impaulsive podcast, Mahomes more or less made a Joe Namath-esque guarantee that the Chiefs would be holding the Lombardi Trophy yet again in New Orleans after Super Bowl LIX concludes.
The road to New Orleans will be a gauntlet given how stacked the AFC is.
If history is any indication, the Chiefs may very well have to clear the Buffalo Bills again in the playoffs. They’ve eliminated Josh Allen and Co. in three of the past four postseasons. It’s starting to feel a little analogous to Buffalo’s four consecutive Super Bowl losses to kick off the ’90s. Kansas City will definitely want to have home-field advantage the next time around, because the Bills proved to be a hostile environment in the Divisional Round in the teams’ latest duel, as Mahomes revealed in a clip that dropped on Friday:
Mahomes described the animosity with Buffalo loyalists as part of a healthy rivalry, and said the Bills have great fans. They certainly do. Better them than me. I would’ve given up a long time ago on a team I was rooting for if many of our fans drank themselves blind at tailgates and crashed through tables that were set on fire. When you wear that as a badge of honor, you might be a team/fan base who’s high-key self-hating. I’d assume several flaming tables were cracked in the aftermath of the Bills trading with the Chiefs on draft day to allow KC to get Xavier Worthy.
For all the heartbreak Chiefs Kingdom endured in the pre-Mahomes era, you don’t see their fans scaling heights and risking spinal fractures to get hyped up for game day. They have the comfort of knowing they have the best quarterback in the world, maybe ever, on their side. Not that Allen is inferior to Mahomes by a massive margin, but their accomplishments don’t even compare. Kansas City’s superstar is already transcending his contemporaries and chasing Tom Brady as the GOAT.
Mahomes acknowledged that Brady is the GOAT. I thought it was interesting how detailed he was in his answer, explaining how the span from when Brady turned 40 through the end of his career, that stretch alone was worthy of the Hall of Fame. If Mahomes can emulate what he did in his first six seasons as a starter — 3-1 in Super Bowls, two regular-season MVP awards — and more or less duplicate that twice more, he’ll eclipse TB12 as the best to ever do it.
One reason the Chiefs have been so dominant is Mahomes’ sterling 30-5 record against AFC West rivals. Outside of the division, if my research is indeed correct and I’m not punch-drunk from how often Kansas City beats the opposition into oblivion, the only teams Mahomes has faced more than once who he has a .500 record or worse against are the Bengals (3-3) and Colts (0-2). Joe Burrow and Cincinnati seem like the only adversary capable of consistently giving KC a run for their money. As far as Indy is concerned, I have more belief in Anthony Richardson than probably anyone who covers sports for a living.
Plus, the Colts had one of the better drafts in the league, and were playing for the AFC South title in Week 18 without Richardson in the lineup. If you don’t want the Chiefs’ dynasty to persist, pray for the health of Joey B and Richardson. They may be the only real hopes of preventing Mahomes’ three-peat prophecy from coming to fruition.
Full Mahomes-Paul pod below.
