“He was okay,” is what John Middelkauf thinks of Patrick Mahomes in 2024. The Kansas City Chiefs navigated their way through a tough AFC to reach Super Bowl LIX. Contrary to what the 15-2 regular season record might suggest, they weren’t exactly dominant.
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Kansas City went 12-0 in one-possession games this year (including playoffs) before losing the Lombardi Trophy to the Philadelphia Eagles. This allowed them to significantly outperform their expected record (10.2-6.8). Was Patrick Mahomes the reason the Chiefs prevailed in tight circumstances so often? Middlekauff says no.
In his opinion, Kansas City’s success proved “you need more than a great QB” to win in the modern NFL. He claimed Mahomes didn’t play anything like a top-level signal-caller in 2024.
“Patrick Mahomes, you could argue he wasn’t even a top-five quarterback all season. Obviously, we all consider him the top quarterback, but just based on this individual season in a vacuum, he was okay.”
Mahomes ranked 16th in passer rating (93.5) and eighth in QBR (67.6) last season. He also threw an interception on 1.9% of his pass attempts, the 18th-best mark among qualified passers.
He slotted 10th overall in completion percentage (67.5%) and passing yards per game (254.5). So while he doesn’t deserve all the blame, he doesn’t necessarily deserve all the flowers too, as per the analyst’s assertion.
“You could argue it wasn’t all his fault… but they were a good team. They were a well-run operation, and that operation carried them all the way to the Super Bowl,” he said on his 3 and Out podcast.
The Cincinnati Bengals, on the other hand, finished 9-8 in 2024, just missing out on the playoffs. Many would say that Joe Burrow actually performed better than Mahomes. And yet, his team wasn’t the one playing in the Super Bowl. This led Middlekauff to declare a quarterback simply can’t overcome adversity by himself to reach tremendous playoff heights.
John Middlekauff compares Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes
The Kansas City Chiefs posted a 15-2 record after benching their starters in a 38-0 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 18. This may lead you to believe the Chiefs scored more points than the Bengals. However, Cincinnati actually outscored Kansas City by 87 points (472-385) on the season.
Defensively, though, the Chiefs were much stouter than the Bengals. Kansas City’s unit allowed a whopping 108 fewer points (326) than Cincinnati’s bunch (434). This differential made Middlekauf declare that a quarterback can’t always carry an entire team on his back, as many have claimed Mahomes does: “You cannot do it on your own… you need a good team [and] you need good defensive players… good coaching on that side of the ball.”
Burrow and Mahomes exemplify this better than anyone. Cincinnati’s quarterback averaged 43.8 more passing yards per game than his counterpart. With Mahomes sitting the regular season finale, Burrow notched 990 more total passing yards on the season. And he still wasn’t able to play postseason football. While Middlekauff characterized Mahomes as “okay” in 2024, he called Burrow “elite.”
“He was in the MVP mix, and his team did not make the playoffs. He threw 43 touchdown passes… Patrick Mahomes threw 26, yet Patrick Mahomes’ team was the No. 1 overall seed. And if they didn’t throw the last game, [they] could have gone 16-1. Joe Burrow had to claw, scratch and bite his way to just get above .500.”
Bill Belichick recently mentioned quarterbacks “get a little too much credit [and] maybe a little too much criticism” for wins and losses. The statistics clearly show which man was better in 2024, but Mahomes gets the glory because of his record.
This fate is how the league works, but that doesn’t make it right. Middlekauff’s analysis indicates he’d like to see this changed. Unfortunately, it seems something drastic would have to unfold before that happens anytime soon.
