Something funny has happened in the six months since the end of Super Bowl LIX, and it’s quite befuddling. As many NFL insiders, columnists, and fans rank the league’s best quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes was the once-unanimous pick to the question, “Who is the best QB in the NFL?” He is beginning to fade down the list in favor of quarterbacks like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow. Why?
It appears that, after the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense utterly dominated the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense in the Super Bowl, he is now a lesser quarterback. This was only the second time that a Mahomes-led team was thoroughly blown out in the playoffs and Super Bowl. The first time was Super Bowl LV against Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive line was decimated by injury.
Nearly every great QB that’s won a Super Bowl has run into a buzz saw of a defense once or twice. It happened to Joe Montana in 1986 against the New York Giants and Peyton Manning in Super Bowl XLVIII against the Seattle Seahawks.
Fans seem to be sick of the Chiefs, and that’s understandable. It’s Taylor Swift. It’s Kansas City getting every call. The Chiefs have filled the position that the Brady and Bill Belichick New England Patriots, as well as the 1990s Dallas Cowboys before them, have held as America’s most hated team.
Fans want to see the Buffalo Bills finally win a Super Bowl. They want Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens to go from the 32nd pick in the first round to MVP to champion. They want Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals to return to the Super Bowl and finally deliver a cursed franchise its first Super Bowl. People are desperate for something new. Even the Eagles reached the Super Bowl two seasons prior, but lost to Mahomes.
As the Rolling Stones put it, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Try as they might, fans will not magically get the Bills, Ravens, Bengals, or any other AFC team to the mountaintop by magic, as long as he is around.
Since becoming a starter back in 2018, the Chiefs, on the back of Mahomes, have made the AFC Championship every year. They have made the Super Bowl five of those years, only losing to Tom Brady’s New England Patriots and Burrow’s Bengals in a stunner in years they didn’t make it. That win has helped keep Burrow in the top-four quarterback conversation, despite the Bengals underperforming almost every year since.
Out of those five appearances, he’s has won three times, which puts him with Brady, Montana, Terry Bradshaw, and Troy Aikman as the only starting quarterbacks to win three or more Super Bowls. All of those QBs are in the Hall of Fame or will be in on the first ballot when their time comes.
After the AFC Championship against the Bengals, the Chiefs shipped Mahomes’ best weapon, Tyreek Hill, to the Miami Dolphins. Most fans expected Kansas City to fall off and, instead, they won Super Bowls LVII and LVIII. Allen and Jackson may be the two other quarterbacks to win MVPs in the era of Mahomes, and yet, they both fell short to him in the AFC Championship.
It’s Jalen Hurts who should be seen as Mahomes’ main rival in the NFL, as they are 2-2 against one another in the regular season and playoffs. Both quarterbacks have an unparalleled ability to dominate their conference. Hurts may have had some more growing pains than Mahomes did in his first few years, but he’s quickly caught up to him. With the help of his general manager, Howie Rosen, the Eagles fit the offense around the QB’s strengths, just like Brett Veach did with Mahomes.
Last I checked, people aren’t clamoring to put Hurts above Mahomes, Allen, Jackson, or Burrow. Hurts, however, is the only QB, along with Matthew Stafford, who is the only active quarterback not named Mahomes to win a Super Bowl within the last ten years. Ric Flair infamously said, “To be the man, you have to beat the man.” Hurts is the only one to beat the man, but Mahomes, for better or worse, is still the man. He, with every go route, slant, bubble screen, or RPO he runs, is still the best quarterback most of us have seen.
Mahomes is chasing the ghosts of Brady and Joe Montana. Everyone else is chasing him. Good luck to them.
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