NEW ORLEANS — The best player at the most important position in football figures to have a rather large impact on the outcome of Super Bowl LIX.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes prepares to take his fifth crack at winning the Lombardi Trophy — which would be his fourth — and it’s not a stretch to label him the most consequential player Sunday.
To his teammates, that is an enormously comforting thought.
“There are a lot of things he does behind the scenes that people probably don’t appreciate,” offensive lineman Joe Thuney said. “When I came in (2021), I always thought he was really mature. He always handled himself so well.
“He’s a great player. An elite player.”
This season, Mahomes improved his passer rating to 93.5. He also tossed three fewer interceptions (11 vs. 14) while leading the Chiefs to a 15-2 record and the AFC’s top seed.
As a starter, Mahomes, 29, has never thrown for fewer than 3,900 yards or 26 touchdowns, while never posting a passer rating lower than 92.6.
It’s that consistency and his championship pedigree that are reminiscent of another future Hall of Famer, Tom Brady.
In winning seven Super Bowls, Brady never dipped below 3,500 yards passing or 23 touchdowns in a season in which he played every game, a career that also left him as the NFL’s career leader in completions, yards and touchdowns.
The comparison is not lost on Thuney. He was drafted by the Patriots and played with Brady for four seasons in New England.
“The time they put in at the facility, day in and day out, all the extra games, all the extra film they go through, and just that attitude that everyday they’re trying to get better,” Thuney listed when providing similarities between the two. “The leadership, the example they set … I just feel very fortunate and lucky that I’ve been around it my whole career.”
Mahomes prides himself on a consistent approach. But he credits the entire locker room for the franchise’s success.
“I don’t take it for granted,” Mahomes said. “The guys we have in our locker room have such an appreciation for the process and how hard it is to get to the Super Bowl. (Every offseason) we really go back to ground zero, and we work our tail off to be the best that we can be.”
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is a familiar face from his time coaching the division rival Denver Broncos (2019-21), and he brings an approach that can often dictate to an offense.
“The way he’s able to scheme things, the way he’s able to read tendencies, get you out of your best plays, and force you to do things you don’t want to do, he’s one of the best at that stuff,” Mahomes said.
Mahomes was 6-0 against the Broncos during Fangio’s tenure there, but none of those games came on this big a stage. If there’s a glimmer of hope for Eagles supporters that Mahomes may not be at his best Sunday, they might find it there.
The two worst playoff performances of Mahomes’ career have come in the Super Bowl, when he posted a 78.1 rating in Super Bowl LIV (a 31-20 win vs. San Francisco) and a dismal 52.3 rating in the Chiefs’ 31-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
“Every game has its own challenges in it. You don’t want to get too high or get too low,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “If something bad happens, you want to learn from it and move on.”
Mahomes took that sort of advice to heart. He has since posted ratings of 131.8 and 99.3 in back-to-back Super Bowl victories over Philadelphia and San Francisco.
That kind of improvement shows growth in Mahomes’ game. Kansas City relies less on him to put up big numbers every week. Reid credits at least some of that growth to Mahomes getting to sit his first year and learn from incumbent Alex Smith.
“I’m not saying he couldn’t have been as great as he is now if he didn’t sit, but having (the experience observing) Alex Smith was something that you can’t buy,” Reid said. “I think that’s helped him.”
Mahomes agrees.
“It was extremely important for me,” he said. “Coming into the NFL, you just don’t know what to expect. Instead of being thrown into the fire, and having to figure it out on the fly, I got to learn behind one of the smartest quarterbacks of all time.”
–David Gladow, Field Level Media
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