Chiefs roster evaluation: Patrick Mahomes cements his role as NFL’s best in 2020

What actually happened?

Mahomes, of course, dazzled in the preseason. Unfortunately, Henne suffered a broken ankle in the preseason game against San Francisco, paving the way for the Chiefs to ink Matt Moore in late August. The Chiefs made the decision to roster Henne on final cut-down day, so that they could return him from IR later in the year, which they indeed did. The rookie Shurmur played well enough to beat out Litton for a spot on the Chiefs’ practice squad.

When the Chiefs opened the year on the road at Jacksonville, things were a little shaky on the back end with Moore learning the playbook as quickly as possible. But you’ve got the MVP, right?

The Chiefs got a scare in the 2nd quarter when Mahomes came up limping after being gang-tackled at the Jacksonville 7-yard-line. Though he returned to that game, the ankle was heavily taped and it was evident that the injury was impeding Mahomes’ play in the coming weeks.

It didn’t help that Mahomes’ top target, wide receiver Tyreek Hill, and his Pro Bowl left tackle. Eric Fisher, were both knocked out for extended periods of time in the opening half of the season. Other injuries piled up as well, but it rarely affected things in the win-loss column—where it mattered most. However, it was evident on a week-to-week basis that Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy were handcuffed with so many key players banged up.

Everything froze at Denver in Week 7 when, on national television, Mahomes lay motionless on the ground after picking up a first down on a 4th-down sneak. The speed in which Rick Burkholder and the Chiefs’ medical staff responded cannot be forgotten in this. After having his dislocated knee reset right there on the field, the tension on all of Mahomes’ ligaments was relieved in a matter of moments.

Thankfully, we’ll never know what further damage was avoided that night, but with the injury Mahomes was still out for several more weeks. At the time of his departure, the Chiefs quarterback had thrown for 15 TD and just one INT on the season.

Enter Matt Moore. Moore took the helm in the Broncos game, and with the help of a dominating defensive effort, he led the Chiefs to a convincing victory. We learned in the days after that first-team receivers had never caught passes from the 35-year-old Moore, even in practice, making the win in Denver that much more remarkable.

Mahomes would miss the next two games, both home games against NFC North opponents that would eventually be playoff teams. Moore and the Chiefs took Green Bay down to the wire on Sunday Night Football, and he then led the Chiefs to an impressive win against the Vikings in the following week.

After it was all said and done, Moore exceeded any expectation, making a couple of highlight passes in each game and leaving the Chiefs feeling pretty comfortable while their star quarterback healed up on the bench.

Mahomes would return in Week 10 against Tennessee, throwing for a remarkable 446 yards. The Titans managed to pull out a win that day, but the loss galvanized the Chiefs into another level of grit in their pursuit of a championship. That would be the last game the Chiefs would lose.

The blessing in disguise was that, in his recovery from the knee injury, Mahomes’ lingering ankle injury was also allowed to heal. After all the injuries earlier in the year, the team got healthy at the right time and hit a hot streak when it mattered most. Fisher returned the game after Mahomes did, and the Chiefs ripped off a nine-game winning streak en route to a Super Bowl Championship.

Mahomes finished the 2019 regular season with 4,031 yards, 26 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He chipped in another 901 yards, 10 touchdowns in 3 playoff games, while throwing just 2 interceptions (both in the Super Bowl).

Here’s what resonated with Mahomes’ 2019 performance: In the season’s final game, Mahomes played what, for him, was a statistically average game. He had his lowest completion percentage (61.9%) since the Raiders game in Week 13, threw his first multi-interception game since Week 11 in 2018 (the 54-51 barn burner vs. the Rams), and yet when it was all said and done, he was still the Super Bowl MVP after orchestrating a 4th quarter comeback in which the team was down 10 points with under 7 minutes to play.

Even a statistically sub-par game from Mahomes was enough to defeat the best the rest of the league had to offer.