Patrick Mahomes is (probably) what we’ve been waiting for
We are witnessing either the beginning of a new era of Chiefs football or the cruelest joke ever played on a tortured fan base. There is no in-between.
Patrick Mahomes is literally having the best start to an NFL season ever. He’s thrown for an unprecedented 10 touchdowns in two games, paired with zero interceptions and a 69 percent completion percentage. 18 percent of his passes are touchdowns, and 21 percent of his passes are incomplete.
That kind of statline is usually a sign that you should start playing your video game on a higher difficulty.
But Chiefs fans are perpetually waiting for the other shoe to drop. And why wouldn’t they be? Ask five long-suffering Chiefs fans for the worst playoff loss in their lifetime, and you’ll probably get five unique and equally-deserving answers. Ask for the best quarterback they’ve seen under center, and you’ll probably get five unique and equally-competent retreads. Ask for the best deep run into the playoffs, and you’ll probably get a glare and perhaps a downtrodden chuckle.
But good lord, Patrick Mahomes makes you forget about all of that, doesn’t he?
It’s the arm strength, the eye level, the poise, the comfort, the decisions, the weaponry and coaching around him—it’s literally everything. So far.
Patrick Mahomes is either the greatest gift that Kansas City Chiefs fans have ever been given, or the cruelest Trojan Horse since the Trojan Horse. (Which, by the way, is just a story and not a historical fact! I learned this recently. I’m 23 years old.)
If Patrick Mahomes isn’t what he’s been through his first two meaningful games of professional football, even falling to a league-average quarterback, this fanbase will descend into a tar pit of defeat and self-pity. Kansas City has tasted the effectually-forbidden fruit. Don’t you dare take it away after two bites.
But that’s the view of the fearful cynic – the voice in the back of the city’s head. At this point, Trojan Horses be damned, this guy looks like the real deal. At every turn, Mahomes has impressed. Everything from his arm strength (which we knew about) to his eye level (which we hoped for) to his ability to read and dissect defenses (which we dared not to even imagine) have been spectacular through his first two games. A small sample size? Perhaps. But what else could you possibly ask a quarterback to do through two games against two of the biggest giants in his conference? Eleven touchdowns would have just been overkill.
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