He’s won three Super Bowls, five AFC Championships, two regular season MVP awards, sports a pair of All-Pro titles, and is a six-time Pro Bowler. But somehow, Patrick Mahomes is not the best player in the NFL today, according to his contemporaries. In 2023, he was graded as the best player in the league, but even though he followed that up by claiming yet another Super Bowl MVP, he dropped to the fourth overall spot in last year’s NFL Top 100 rankings.
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Now that he’s coming off of one of the most lopsided losses in championship history, he figures to yet again miss out on the number one spot for a second consecutive year. Thankfully, he’s still receiving his due recognition elsewhere.
NFL executives, coaches, and scouts, listed him as the best quarterback in the NFL today during ESPN’s off-season survey earlier this July. Considering his aforementioned accolades, they were right to do so. But a severe drop in his passing metrics will almost certainly be enough for the rest of the league to justify leaving him out of their top-three rankings once again.
Even though he was able to guide Kansas City towards a 15-2 regular season record, the 2024 season was the worst of Mahomes’ career from a personal standpoint. His passing yards and touchdown totals were the lowest that he has ever produced as a starter. His 392 passing completions are the fewest that he has produced in any season since 2020.
Considering that Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Saquon Barkley all managed to produce their own bit of history last season, all three of them will likely receive a higher ranking than Mahomes for this year’s NFL Top 100 list. Especially Barkley, who, after producing the most rushing yards in a season in NFL history, seems to be the de facto number one.
The Cincinnati Bengals QB1 dominated the charts in 2024, leading the league in passing attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, and yards per game. Had it not been for a historically awful defense undermining his efforts, Burrow likely would’ve been received as the best passer in the league last season.
Then there’s Jackson, the man who many believe was robbed of winning his third regular season MVP. The face of the Baltimore Ravens threw for a career-best 4,172 passing yards and 41 touchdowns.
When it comes to QBRs and passer ratings, no one in the league was better than Jackson last season, and he did all of this while also producing 915 rushing yards. Nevertheless, none of these metrics, nor rankings, likely matter to Mahomes.
The soon-to-be 30 year old is determined to avenge his loss at Super Bowl LIX, nothing more and nothing less. Off-field chatter only serves as more fuel to the fire, and given his pedigree, perhaps it’s best that the league keeps its opinions to itself, otherwise they’ll risk driving him right towards another AFC Championship.
