The Kansas City Chiefs have a true star on their hands at quarterback after the second-year player put on an offensive clinic against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
For one full year, Patrick Mahomes had to sit in the shadows and let his coaches do the talking for him. They said he was special. They boasted about his potential. They said he’d be worth the wait.
These days, Mahomes is doing the talking, at least on the field, making the positive overtures and descriptions from Brett Veach and Andy Reid look like severe understatements with just how effective he’s been running the Kansas City Chiefs offense.
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs moved to 2-0 primarily because Patrick Mahomes is their starting quarterback. He has 10 touchdowns through two games. He also has zero interceptions. He’s actually helped Tyreek Hill reach his potential, making full use of the NFL’s fastest man. He’s learned how to utilize his auxiliary weapons, his 1A and 1B targets like Travis Kelce and Sammy Watkins. He’s even throwing perfectly executed sideline passes to fullbacks with nicknames like Sausage.
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What is most incredible about Patrick Mahomes is that there is no area in which he’s not incredible. Consider any and all of the following:
- Mahomes has the Chiefs at 2-0 through one of the toughest portions of a schedule that’s definitely frontloaded. The Steelers and Chargers are the two teams predicted most to win their respective divisions and the Chiefs have already taken care of business. Even more, Mahomes has guided the offense effortlessly on the road—still having yet to make his debut at Arrowhead. Incredible.
- Mahomes has a cannon for an arm, but his uncanny instincts to know how and when to use it are awe-inspiring. It’s the perfect arc and touch on the Sherman touchdown from Week 1. It’s the absolute zinger to Tyreek Hill on a slant late in the fourth against the Steelers. It’s the ideal trajectory to hit Kelce over the linebackers and the rifle to nail DeMarcus Robinson in the back of the end zone. Incredible.
- Mahomes isn’t even trying to do too much. On multiple occasions against the Steelers, he simply took what they gave him—including when they gave him nothing. He took the sack when he had to. He ran out of bounds before the first down marker when there was nowhere else to go without risking injury. He threw it away against Pittsburgh after forcing it a couple times against the Chargers. Andy Reid says he never makes the same mistake twice, and Chiefs fans are seeing the learning curve firsthand. Incredible.
- Through it all, Mahomes is always calm, cool and collected. He’s team-oriented. He’s confident as can be. He also is never down on the sideline, emotional on the field or overwhelmed as a rookie. He’s chill in front of reporters, owns his mistakes and those of others and believes that this team can truly be something special. Incredible.
Coming into this season, we were led to believe that Mahomes was going to be an exciting young prospect who would likely show Chiefs fans a higher ceiling at quarterback than they’d had in quite some time. He was supposed to turn the ball over nearly as much as he put it in the end zone, and Chiefs fans were prepared to watch a shaky but promising rookie campaign in the process—a young Favre learning as he adjusts to the pro game.
Instead we’re watching a miracle season unfold, a man who will already be in the MVP conversation the moment it really gets going. He’s setting the entire NFL ablaze. He’s got the cool of Joe Montana, the arm of Brett Favre, the touch of Tom Brady, the confidence of Aaron Rodgers. He got into a shootout with Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger on the road and outperformed them both—two future Hall of Famers outdone by the next great one among them.
The hope was that Patrick Mahomes would grow into a star quarterback and that this season would be the first step.
Two games in, he already has every other quarterback in the NFL looking up to him.