Patrick Mahomes just keeps on plugging along, doesn’t he? He lost Tyreek Hill prior to the 2022 campaign, but still put up an MVP season. He lost his offensive coordinator prior to the 2023 campaign, and still went on to win his third Super Bowl. He’s now light-years ahead of the field in nearly every statistical category for QBs through their age-29 season and on the cusp of the first-ever Super Bowl three-peat. And yet, he’s still not entered the GOAT debate next to Tom Brady, according to some.
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And by some, we mean Brady’s old teammate with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rob Gronkowski. While doing a guest spot on The Tonight Show, Gronkowski spoke about the debate. He acknowledged both that Mahomes is the greatest in the game right now as well as his own Brady bias.
“Patrick Mahomes is definitely the greatest player in the NFL currently playing right now. But in order to get into the GOAT talk as the greatest of all-time, I’m gonna be a little biased, because I played with Tom Brady and I think he’s the greatest player of all-time. And he’s proven that he is the greatest player of all-time.”
Gronkowski is quite adamant about Brady’s place in the GOAT debate, and he’s clearly not alone. Mahomes is certainly creeping up on Brady, but he’s still got a long way to go. Even a three-peat wouldn’t push Mahomes into the debate, in his view, and he made some solid arguments to back up his claims.
“First off, he’s got to win this Super Bowl coming up and get the three-peat, and I believe that’s probably one of the best dynasties in the last decade. But we had the dynasty for two decades, but for having just one decade of a dynasty, that’s the best dynasty for one decade I would say, if they win the three-peat. (Laughs) But, is he better than Tom Brady? Tom Brady beat him two times in the playoffs and is undefeated versus him. We beat him in the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.”
When it comes to the head-to-head matchups, it’s not quite as simple as it seems, however. Brady certainly outplayed Mahomes in Super Bowl 55, but it was a different story in their first matchup in 2018.
In that AFC Championship, Mahomes threw for 295 yards and three scores for a 117.0 passer rating. Brady, meanwhile, had arguably his worst playoff performance ever, throwing one TD against two picks for a 77.1 rating. Brady threw a third INT to seal a K.C. win, only for Chiefs edge Dee Ford to gift them another chance with an offside call.
It is also true that the Patriots won six Super Bowls across an 18-season span from 2001 to 2018, but it could be argued that Brady was carried to those first three championships by an elite defense. By the time Brady had won his first three Super Bowls, he’d amassed just two Pro Bowl selections and two Super Bowl MVPs.
In contrast, Mahomes has racked up two league MVPs, six Pro Bowls, two 1st-Team All-Pro selections, and three Super Bowl MVPs. Not to mention that prior to 2023, there could be absolutely no debate about whether it was the offense or defense driving K.C.’s success, unlike in those early days in Foxborough. It certainly seems like there’s not much Mahomes can’t do—except one very specific celebration.
Gronkowski jokes about Mahomes failing at the Gronk spike
There are some elite players who make so many house calls that they end up with a signature touchdown celebration. Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson have the Griddy, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson did the funky chicken, and Rob Gronkowski did the Gronk spike. Lots of guys spike the ball after scoring a TD, but the power and aggression with which Gronkowski hurled the ball at the turf made his version unique.
Mahomes recently attempted something similar to a Gronk spike during his AFC Championship win last weekend, and it couldn’t have come off worse, as the ball squirted out of his hand before he could smash it into the ground. CBS commentator Jim Nantz even said, “his worst pass of the night is on the spike attempt”. Gronk broke down why Mahomes’ spike went wrong in a predictably hilarious manner.
“In order to get the best possible Gronk spike, the most power behind the spike, you actually have to do the windup. And he was fully into it, which, you gotta give him a 10/10 for that… But it was cold out… When you’re Gronk spiking it and you wanna get that intense power behind it, you really just gotta hold on to it when your hand’s that cold, it’s hard to get that grip. So next time, just warm those hands up real quick, and then wind it up, and then, BOOM!”
There’s no way for Mahomes to escape those two losses to Brady, as Gronkowski pointed out, but he has certainly inserted himself into GOAT debates, even if he hasn’t yet surpassed Tom Brady. We can say this with certainty: there is no QB in NFL history who had a better resume by age 29 than Mahomes has right now.
