ESPN has put out its prediction list of who it believes will be the top 100 NFL players for the upcoming regular season, and to the surprise of likely no one, the Disney-owned network is projecting Patrick Mahomes to finish as the best player in the league.
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Even though he managed to win his sixth overall and third consecutive AFC Championship, the face of the Kansas City Chiefs is expected to miss out on the number one spot on the NFL’s Top 100 list, but this is a nice consolation prize.
However, the former host of Undisputed turned YouTuber, Skip Bayless, doesn’t believe that Mahomes is deserving of such a projection. “Look hard at Patrick Mahomes’ last two seasons,” Bayless exclaimed during the latest episode of his self-titled podcast.
“He ranked eighth in QBR and then eighth in QBR. All of his numbers were down from season to season… Everybody says ‘Well, he doesn’t have protection and he doesn’t have this and he doesn’t have receivers.’ Now, Travis Kelce, he’s admiting that he did get a little distracted because of everything that swirled around his relationship with Taylor Swift… So you could say, well, Patrick didn’t get all of Travis.”
Nevertheless, Bayless isn’t buying any of these narratives. According to him, the true reason behind the steady decline in Mahomes’ passing metrics comes down to the fact that he has become “a little bit of a caricature of himself.”
Having a head coach like Andy Reid, who can seemingly scheme up success for anyone, has masked some of Mahomes’ bad habits in recent years. In the eyes of Bayless, however, those mistakes are becoming increasingly obvious as time goes on.
“You think Shedeur holds the ball too long? Patrick holds the ball too long trying to make the big throw, the big highlight play. He just hasn’t been that good,” he explained. Even still, it’s hard to grade Mahomes like the rest of his contemporaries.
He’s six for six as a starter when it comes to making both the Pro Bowl and the AFC Championship, and his career averages of 288.9 passing yards per game and 7.51 adjusted net yards per pass attempt are both the highest of any quarterback in NFL history. Throw in a pair of regular-season MVP awards, three Lombardi trophies, and three Super Bowl rings, and it’s no mystery as to why he is the perennial favorite heading into each season.
Although the mystique may be beginning to wear off a bit. His loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl LIX was one of the most lopsided results in the history of the big game, and as a result, Mahomes now seems more beatable than ever before.
If he wants to maintain the aura that he’s worked so hard to establish, then Mahomes will need to get off to a fast start against the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil. Thankfully, he sports a 6-1 career record in Week 1, so it seems more likely than not that Mahomes is destined for a Roy Jones type of performance on September 5th.
