Jarrod Thurman @JarrodChiefsFCS Chiefs Focus @Chiefsfocus
Patrick Mahomes has already accomplished more than the overwhelming majority of quarterbacks in their first six seasons. He’s also already accomplished more than some quarterbacks in their entire careers. The question though, as of right now, where does he rank in NFL history?
I think the easiest place to start is statistical comparisons. Mahomes is already 84th in NFL history in yards with 24,241. For comparison, Jared Goff is 74th with 25,854 playing in 20 more games than Mahomes and Dak Prescott is 80th with 24,943 playing in 17 more games. Mahomes has a solid chance to jump as high as 60 next season ahead of Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw and Joe Namath. With 4,267 yards next season, he’ll pass Len Dawson for career passing yards in franchise history, and considering his worst season was 4,031, I think he has a solid chance. Now, you can’t really compare his stats to other quarterbacks after 5 seasons as a starter because the game has evolved so much, so I won’t do that.
Mahomes secured his 2nd league MVP award this season. Forty-nine different players have won league MVP. After Winning his 2nd, Mahomes joins an elite category of multi-time MVPs. Only 10 of the 49 MVP winners have won a 2nd MVP award. This category is full of all-time greats such as Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers. Mahomes has now joined this list.
Mahomes now has 2 Super Bowl wins. Only 12 other quarterbacks have accomplished this feat. However, the other 12 quarterbacks did not have the other accomplishments Mahomes has, so that sets him apart from the others. Even factoring in his overall playoff performances puts him ahead of others. He is already 10th in playoff passing yards, 8th in playoff passing touchdowns, and 10th in career playoff wins. With one more Super Bowl run, he’ll have more than Peyton Manning, Steve Young, John Elway, and Terry Bradshaw who all have 14. If the Chiefs win the Super Bowl without a bye week next season, he’ll tie Joe Montana for playoff wins.
So that is the resume. With the 2nd Super Bowl victory I think he has officially surpassed the late great Len Dawson as the best quarterback in franchise history. The tricky question is, at 27 years old and with this resume, where is he ranked in NFL history? I think in order to answer this question, we have to answer based on if his career ended this offseason. I think he would squeak into the Hall of Fame as of right now for sure. I feel pretty strongly we could put him into the top 20, even the top 15 quarterbacks of all time.
Where would we rank him top 15? I can’t put him with Tom Brady or Joe Montana yet, the clear-cut 1st and 2nd best quarterbacks of all time. If you compare his resume to other 2+ Super Bowl Champions, the only quarterback with better resumes would be Brady, Montana, and Peyton Manning. John Elway has two, but only 1 MVP and 1 Super Bowl MVP, so I think Mahomes gets the edge. Troy Aikman has 3 and Terry Bradshaw has 4, but they both are horribly overrated and do not deserve to be mentioned among the all-time greats. I think he’s definitely better than names like Eli Manning, and Bob Griese, among others that have won at least 2.
Dare I say it? Is Patrick Mahomes already a top 5 all-time quarterback? He’s got Super Bowls, so you can possibly put him ahead of names like Dan Marino. He also has multiple so you could possibly put him names like Brett Favre. However, these guys had 10+ years of success. Yes, he’s a better resume in 5 years as a starter than some players have had in their entire careers, but I’m not sure I can say he’s top 5, yet.
So what is the final conclusion? Patrick Mahomes is one of the top quarterbacks of all time but I’m not ready to put him higher than the top 15 all-time. If I were to put an exact number on it, I have him at 12th. I love Patrick Mahomes and he has the potential to retire at the top, he’s just not quite there yet.
