Heading into the 2024 season, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have won back-to-back Super Bowls and are looking to three-peat. That’s something that has never been achieved in the Super Bowl era, and one player holds the key to the team's dreams. That player also happens to be chasing football immortality and greatest-of-all-time status. Here’s the Chiefs player who is under the most pressure this upcoming season.
Patrick Mahomes has proven himself
Typically, when we think of a player under pressure, we think of somebody fighting for their place in the league. It might be a fringe starter who needs to keep their job or a second or third-string player who just wants to find a way to avoid getting cut and finding themselves out of the NFL.
Other times, the player under pressure might be somebody who has solidified their spot as a starter but hasn’t quite yet earned the respect of a superstar throughout the league. That player may have only had one or two good seasons, or he may have benefited from playing with a superstar teammate. He may have just joined a new team or be playing for a new deal in free agency. He might just be missing one skill that could elevate him from star to superstar.
None of these conditions apply to Mahomes. Ask anybody around the NFL and they are likely to tell you that Mahomes is the best player in the world.
Since breaking into the NFL in 2018, Patrick Mahomes has taken the league by storm and established himself as the best quarterback in the game. There was some competition for a while, primarily from Josh Allen and the ageless Tom Brady. However, the cream always rises to the top. Mahomes slowly pulled away from Allen and Brady retired.
Mahomes dominates opponents with his versatility. He succeeds by making the proper reads and hitting any throw. He can loft vertical passes downfield and drop them right into the breadbasket or he could fire rockets through multiple defenders between the numbers. Yet, his pure passing isn’t even the best part of Mahomes' game.
The former Texas Tech quarterback is at his best when the play breaks down, and he gets to play backyard football. This is where his ability to improvise and throw off-platform shines. He used to play shortstop, and it shows in his ability to make throws look routine that most other signal callers wouldn’t even attempt.
So, if Mahomes is the best player in football why is he under the most pressure? Mahomes has graduated from the typical pressure athletes face and he’s under an entirely different kind of scrutiny. Let’s take a closer look.
Mahomes is trying to make history
Mahomes has nothing left to prove as a quarterback. He already has a résumé that rivals the great Tom Brady, and if he retired today he would be one of the three to five best quarterbacks of all time. Mahomes would even have a credible case as the best quarterback to ever play if he didn’t play another down of football. It would be an uphill battle to make this claim, sure. But, it’s impressive that the argument could be made at all.
Mahomes might have the most pressure of any player in the league, but it’s certainly a different type of pressure. The Chiefs QB has nothing to prove to anybody, and it’s unlikely that he’ll ever find himself in danger of being cut no matter what happens.
At the end of his career when his contract is an anchor around the team’s neck and his skills have significantly diminished, the Chiefs would still have a difficult time cutting a player who single-handedly revitalized their franchise.
Guys such as Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill played a role for sure, that isn’t meant to disparage them. But, the team wouldn’t be anywhere near what it is today without Patrick Mahomes.
No, Mahomes is under a very different type of scrutiny. His spot on the roster might be secure as long as he wants it, but he’s chasing something very different. Mahomes is chasing something that few other players would even have the hubris to dream of chasing: His legacy. Mahomes is playing for his spot among the all-time greats.
Mahomes is not playing to be considered the best quarterback in the league right now. He’s competing so that he can be compared favorably against names like Tom Brady, Brett Favre, John Elway, Dan Marino, and Aaron Rodgers.
The elusive three-peat
No team in NFL history has managed to three-peat, and the Chiefs are looking to be the first. If they are able to pull off this feat that has never been done before, Mahomes would be recognized as the engine that got them there. That would give him something that even Tom Brady never achieved.
Brady’s greatest trait is his longevity. It’s unlikely that Mahomes will stick around for quite as many years as Brady did or play near as high of a level in those later years as Brady did. This is partially because, while Mahomes doesn’t rely heavily on his athleticism, he does use it more than Brady.
In his later years, Tom Terrific was essentially a statue in the pocket who would just make the right read and throw a perfect pass every time. It’s doubtful that Mahomes will be able to continue his backyard football style of play when he’s 40 years old, and it remains to be seen how well he’ll adapt to different styles.
Therefore, he needs to make his peak as high as it can possibly be in order to give himself an edge in the GOAT conversation once he hangs up his cleats. That’s why he is under more pressure than any other player on Kansas City’s roster.
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