It has been a weird year for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He’s among the league leaders in passing yards and touchdowns while committing 17 turnovers, the second-most behind rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Mahomes has had a lot of underthrown passes, which is uncharacteristic of him. Some of Mahomes’ passes have been dropped or tipped and resulted in an interception. The Chiefs offense, which currently ties the NFL for most giveaways with 25, leads the NFL in dropped passes.
If you follow some of the commentaries from sports analysts on TV and social media as well as sports fans outside of Kansas City, one of the popular discussions during the first half of the 2021 NFL season was Mahomes’ struggles and whether defenses have figured him out. Mahomes was even asked about these comments in a press conference earlier this year.
Despite what some said earlier this year, the NFL has not figured out Patrick Mahomes.
If you want to just look at the stats, and more specifically just the turnovers, yes, it looks like a horrible year for Mahomes. But if you follow the Chiefs closely, or even just watch the highlights and pay close attention to their turnovers and how they occur, you will know that Mahomes is not solely to blame for the excessive turnovers this year.
Mahomes has had a couple of terrible turnovers this year, referring to one of his interceptions as “dumb.” Even the best players make bad decisions from time to time. But a majority of Mahomes’ errors, such as the underthrown passes, are not due to defenses “figuring out” Mahomes. That is simply Mahomes making simple mistakes that can be solved easily through coaching and practice.
Fast forward to Thursday night’s victory over the Chargers: Mahomes threw for 410 yards and three touchdown passes. Yes, he had a couple of bad throws in this game, but those got overshadowed by how he performed in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Five days prior to that, Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 48-9 beatdown over the Raiders.
In these last two games, the “Patrick Mahomes has been figured out” crowd went silent. While the Chiefs offense has not been consistent during this seven-game winning streak, a lot of the critics who said the Chiefs offense was no longer a threat are quiet now.
If Mahomes was “figured out” by NFL defenses, he would not be in the top five in passing completions, yards thrown and touchdown passes.
It’s easy to jump on a top-tier team, like the Chiefs, and specifically Mahomes, after a bad game. Regardless, Mahomes has not been figured out. He has made mistakes, and many of them are his own doings, as opposed to defenses forcing him to constantly make mistakes. Mahomes has been playing better lately, which is good timing as we are less than a month away from the postseason.