Patrick Mahomes is a killer even on his bad days
Patrick Mahomes is a killer even on his bad days
The Chiefs' QB has not played his best ball in 2024, but continues to make "no one but him" plays at a high enough clip that it hasn't mattered.
Patrick Mahomes has not played his best ball this season.
But the funny thing about being the best QB to ever play the game is that even when you’re not at your best… you’re still enough.
I’ve written about this at length in his weekly film reviews, but the short story is that Mahomes has been more prone to happy feet in several games and inaccurate throws in a few others than is his norm. While he hasn’t been bad by normal QB standards, he hasn’t been his usual consistent self (that consistency is what has separated him from other great QB’s over the course of his career). We’re 6 games into the season and he hasn’t had a single outing I’d call better than a “B” game (not even a B+). And all while the Chiefs seem to lose playmakers every week to injury and are trying to find an identity on offense.
For most quarterbacks, going through a bad stretch while your team is struggling to find consistent answers on offense would be enough to torpedo the entire unit and lose games. But Mahomes, even when he’s “bad” by his standards, is still a completely different kind of QB. Because even while he’s not as consistent as he normally is, he’s still doing things like this.
There are a lot of reasons why the Chiefs are 6-0 and 2 games up on the entire AFC, with wins over multiple teams expected to compete for the playoffs. A big one (maybe the biggest one) is Steve Spagnuolo’s defense continuing to put opposing RB’s and QB’s in a choke hold. But make no mistake, Mahomes is one of those reasons as well, even as he and the entire offense have been maddeningly inconsistent and hard to watch. Because while the consistency isn’t there, the flash still is.
I think that because we’ve grown so used to Mahomes, it’s easy to lose track of just how different he is from other quarterbacks. We’ve gotten so used to such greatness with such frequency, that we’ve forgotten how rare it is for a guy to make the sort of plays he makes multiple times per game, even when he’s “off.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t WANT to lose track of just how special his ability to make plays is.
And so before we talk about the defense as a whole, or trading for a WR, or perhaps delve into George Karlaftis playing his best game of the season, I want to take this opportunity to remind Chiefs fans everywhere of what they watched Sunday against the 49ers. Because while it’ll be more talked-about that Mahomes had some rough throws and a really poor stat line (certainly things to be discussed), the reality is a lesser QB might not be able to drag a flawed offense down the field on big drives the way he did.
Greatness, even when it’s flawed greatness, is worth celebrating. And Mahomes, even at less than his best, is still an absolute killer. Let’s talk about some of the plays he made (and the timing of when he made them) that demonstrate just how difficult it is to hold him down even on a tough day.