When talking about a player like Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes, what truly is there more to say besides that he is the best quarterback in the league and already one of the greatest of all time in the position. Even with all of that, ESPN football analyst and former player Ryan Clark said on the show “First Take” that he believes this is a “prove it” year upcoming for Mahomes after winning his third Super Bowl with the Chiefs.
Clark goes into detail why this is a “prove it” year for Chiefs' Mahomes
That could be weird for some to hear that Mahomes needs to further prove anything as he already has arguably an already Hall of Fame career at the age of 28-years old. Clark would however talk about Mahomes proving once again that he is the guy and can win another Most Valuable Player award for the third time in his career coming after a season where the team had some major holes, especially at the receiver position.
“So sometimes you have to forget how great the greatest player is in order for us to consider him for this award again,” Clark said. “Mahomes has proven to us that he's the guy so he almost is only competing against himself. He's competing against the best he's ever been, the best year he's ever had. We watched him last year with me out there playing wide receiver, he was throwing the football to guys and they were actually tipping into the defensive players for pick sixes and all he did was find a way to put his team in a position where they needed one drive from him to win it all. When they kicked that football off to Patrick Mahomes in his Super Bowl, you say game time, you knew it was a wrap.”
“So what do you do for that quarterback who had nobody last year, you go out and get Hollywood Brown, you go out and get him Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice ascended last year, obviously he has some things to deal with,” Clark continued. “But I believe Patrick Mahomes is going to be on one of those prove it years.”
Mahomes continues to be in GOAT conversations along Tom Brady
Part of the conversation that Clark is honing in on is that Mahomes is not in a “prove it” year because he's trying to be the best in the league at the moment, that has already been clear. But, Clark is envisioning how this upcoming season, Mahomes could continue the “GOAT conversations” surrounding him and former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Tom Brady.
“That's something like what I felt about Patrick Mahomes last year, we were down on him as a quarterback, down on him as an offense and all he does is find a way to win the Super Bowl,” Clark said. “I feel like this year he reminds us why we started having the will he replaced Tom Brady as the GOAT conversations and I think that's why I'm excited to see what Kansas City, Andy Reid, and obviously Patrick Mahomes and what they're going to do.”
Mahomes fatigue in terms of media coverage possibly per Clark
Clark also talks about the media interpretation on Mahomes where comparing to people like in basketball with LeBron James and Michael Jordan, there could be “fatigue” in covering the star since everybody knows how great they are as players. He would differ that to the conversation surrounding a player like Houston Texans signal-caller C.J. Stroud who has been a fast ascender as one of the league's top young talents.
“And we get fatigue, like LeBron [James] fatigue, Michael Jordan fatigue. When you see these guys excel at such a high level, we don't come in here on Monday and talk about it the same way,” Clark said. “Whereas if C.J. Stroud goes into Baltimore and beats the Baltimore Ravens after the way the divisional playoff run went last year and plays extremely well, that's all we're going to talk about or if Stefon Diggs goes back to what he was his first year, second year in Buffalo, and we see what essentially we saw from Josh Allen when they acquired Stefon Diggs, that's what we're talking about. And the Kansas City Chiefs can be trudging along and they can be 8-2 and Patrick Mahomes can be playing Mahomes-like football, but it won't be as impressive to us as it is to watch C.J. Stroud become the guy.”
At any rate, the Chiefs are looking to build off their impressive season where they went 11-6, won the AFC West, and won their second straight Super Bowl. They look to win their third consecutive title as they first open the season on Thursday, Sept. 5.
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