Is Patrick Mahomes better this year than in his MVP season?
By John Buhler
Patrick Mahomes won NFL MVP in his first year as the Kansas City Chiefs’ starting quarterback. But is he even better this year?
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At 2-0 after beating the brakes off the archrival Oakland Raiders in their final road game at The Coliseum, the Kansas City Chiefs are riding high heading into their Week 3 home date with the Baltimore Ravens, who are also 2-0.
Though the Raiders and the Jacksonville Jaguars, who the Chiefs beat down in Duval County in Week 1, don’t look like playoff teams, Baltimore certainly does with their high-flying offense led by Lamar Jackson. Fortunately for the Chiefs, they have reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes as their star signal-caller. Is he better than he was a year ago?
On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Josh Hill, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz begin to wonder if Mahomes is better than he was in his MVP campaign from a season ago (29:40)?
Verderame initially didn’t think it was possible but does believe than Mahomes is better than a year ago. He points out how incredible Mahomes was in shredding the Oakland defense in the second quarter of Week 2’s drubbing of the Raiders, as Mahomes had four passing touchdowns in that frame.
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Schwartz, whose younger brother Mitchell Schwartz starts on the Chiefs’ offensive line, wasn’t as quick to crown Mahomes as Verderame. He doesn’t feel that Mahomes is better or worse than a year ago, “this is who he is.”
Schwartz said that Mahomes is dealing with an ankle injury, which could explain the Chiefs falling into a 10-0 hole on the road to the Raiders in the first quarter.
He mentioned that Mahomes did miss some throws in that ball game versus a bad secondary. He would also like to see how he performs versus a solid Ravens team before saying Mahomes has taken his play up a notch.
These are fair criticisms of Mahomes through the first two weeks. Mahomes is undeniably a top-two quarterback in football now, but teams now have a year’s worth of film on the guy. He does seem to be a student of the game and will continue to grow under head coach Andy Reid. The stats may not get better from a year ago, but there are always ways to improve as a player.
Here are a few other topics that were touched on during this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:
- Is the New York Giants starting Daniel Jones the right decision (0:55)?
- Can Mason Rudolph lad the Pittsburgh Steelers to the playoffs (6:46)?
- Will Antonio Brown be on the New England Patriots’ roster when the playoffs start (22:15)?
- Are the Dallas Cowboys the NFC’s best team (32:26)?
All this and more!
Next. More wins: Patriots or Chiefs?. dark
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