Pat Mahomes: G.O.A.T in waiting?
With the GOAT in his 10th(!) super bowl, the sports media’s lack of attention span and impressive ability to overhype anything; including the potential future careers of athletes is coming out in force.
Questions such as; if Pat Mahomes wins this matchup is he already the GOAT? Is Mahomes going to win more Super Bowls than Brady? Will the Chiefs and Mahomes dominate the NFL for the next ten years?
What say you folks? How repeatable is Brady’s and the Patriots run? Can Kansas City really replicate that with the money they’re spending on Mahomes? Is Mahomes really just that good it won’t even matter? Is Andy Reid really that good?
He’s had an incredible start to his career but all of this seems to be just a little much. Most of these talking heads seem to forget that he actually didn’t play particularly well last year in the Super Bowl. Just showing he is in fact mortal. I’ll be interested to see how they do as they have to rely more on crafty roster management and good draft results.
January 28th, 2021 at 11:57 PM ^
All he has to do is go to at least 8 more Super Bowls, and win 5 more (or six if he loses next week), so, I’m going to say: dream on...
January 29th, 2021 at 1:23 AM ^
Never say never, he’s immediately filling the power vacuum left by Brady going to Tampa. KC doesn’t look like they’re leaving the AFC perch anytime soon
Edit: And he’s only 25.
January 29th, 2021 at 1:40 AM ^
KC is 19 mil over the cap for 2021
January 29th, 2021 at 1:49 AM ^
First off he has to stay healthy, they're not going to be able to pay all their great players.
Mahomes needs to consider taking less money in the future if he wants to have a competitive roster of teammates.
He got hurt last year, is hurting now, he'll take bigger hits as he ages and wear down his body.
Other teams will get in the way, Josh Allen and the Bills for one will only get better. If Mahomes makes it to 5 SB's that will be an accomplishment, so what Brady has done might be out of reach for a long, long time if not forever, making it that much more incredible.
January 29th, 2021 at 7:22 AM ^
His style of play will eventually result in a major injury and preclude the length of career that he would need to be close to Brady.
January 29th, 2021 at 8:21 AM ^
Just ask RGIII
January 29th, 2021 at 9:15 AM ^
I disagree with this comp. RGIII was running the zone read like 10-15 times a game if not more and also playing on death trap turf in Landover, MD. He had a powerful arm but could never change angles, throw off platform or be as precise as PM.
January 29th, 2021 at 8:30 AM ^
Was going to say this, also... He is far more active in the whole run game than Brady ever was, and it's going to catch up to him eventually. Brady runs when he has to, because he's not good at it. Mahommes runs both when he needs to and when a play is drawn up for him. He's good at it, in fact he's better while moving around than he is just standing in the pocket. Ask him to stand there and be like Brady, and he's not going to be as effective.
Also, Brady never championed a champions salary for himself. He played largely within the Pats' cap schedule, so he always had a pretty good surrounding cast even if it wasn't the best roster in the NFL. Cap and roster management will begin to play against KC - and Mahommes - at some point in the near future.
As good as he is, there are a lot of factors against him in the race to catch up to what Brady has done.
January 29th, 2021 at 9:45 AM ^
Spot on!
With the exception of one season, lady luck has been on Brady's side with respect to injuries. Brady obviously deserves the GOAT designation but he and the Patriots always seemed to have just enough at crunch time to come through. Some of that was Brady, some was Belichick and some was good fortune.
Mahomes had a knee injury last year where he was extremely lucky that it wasn't worse. He's already had a concussion this year.
When the Seahawks won their Superbowl, it looked like Wilson was the next great thing, and he is an excellent QB to be sure, but other pieces of the puzzle just weren't there.
January 29th, 2021 at 9:10 AM ^
This was largely the view of the Seahawks and Russell Wilson a few years ago. What the Patriots, Brady and Bill accomplished is something that really has never been done before. It worked because it was reliant on a balance between Brady and Bill. Bill sustained the defense (and could produce great defenses without paying tons of money to players) and Brady sustained the offense (he could take a pile of scraps and turn them into a middle tier offense). Then they took fliers on troubled but talented players because they knew they could either rehabilitate them or move on without them.
The Chiefs are much more similar to the Seahawks. They are good largely because of the team they currently have assembled. Mahomes' contract is going to leave very little space to continuously field an elite defense. The offense will be fine with Mahomes and Reid but that defense will fall apart once they run out of money.
January 29th, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
His playing style lends itself to a short shelf-life in the NFL. We already saw it in these playoffs.
Never gonna happen.
January 29th, 2021 at 9:12 AM ^
I think OP has a point. If OP can guarantee a few small points, then Mahomes will be considered the possible GOAT:
1. Age will not diminish his incredible skills over the next 15 or so years
2. He will stay injury free
3. He will have a coaching staff that will maximize his skills throughout that time
4. He will have a front office that will surround him with talent and negotiate the salary cap despite the weight of Patrick's salary
5. He won't develop a poisonous ego despite fame and fortune
6. He will retain a burning competitive desire to win throughout his career
With those few little things and and the minor issue of winning say 6 more Super Bowls, the OP is spot on.
January 29th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
To me, it's like people saying "Does Steph Curry have a chance to be the best ever?" after the Warriors were headed to their second Finals. Like sure, if the Warriors win the next 5 NBA finals and close the door on anyone winning a championship and Curry is single handedly the most dominant player on the planet. But then they got Durant and then he wasn't even the best player on his team. Then money and injuries caught up to them and no one is asking that question.
Tom Brady is two decades of dominance in the making. Totally unprecedented. If anyone even attempts to approach him, it will take a lot more than a strong arm and a great offensive scheme to make a case.
January 28th, 2021 at 11:59 PM ^
So... Thursday night drinking thread confirmed.
January 28th, 2021 at 11:59 PM ^
There have been a lot of great quarterbacks. There is and will be only one goat.
January 29th, 2021 at 4:26 AM ^
Damn right. No one will ever top Jon Kitna.
January 29th, 2021 at 2:17 PM ^
I just threw up in my mouth
I remember seeing Mitchell at Carl's Golfland in Bloomfield Hills in the offseason shortly after he signed his big money contract. He was so sloppy-fat I could hardly believe it. As Jalen would say, he was clearly one of those guys who "just keep gettin dem checks."
January 29th, 2021 at 8:52 AM ^
Necessarily so.
January 29th, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
Brees, Favre, Manning, Rodgers. Five superbowl wins combined. Brady has six.
I'm not saying Mahomes cannot possibly do it. I'm saying he very likely won't, even with as good as he's been so far.
January 30th, 2021 at 4:04 AM ^
Crazy that they’re so far behind and he never played any of them in a superbowl
January 29th, 2021 at 12:00 AM ^
I hope so. I want the Chiefs to dominate for another 20 years.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:02 AM ^
MGoUser geographical location confirmed.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:01 AM ^
Questions such as; if Pat Mahomes wins this matchup is he already the GOAT?
January 29th, 2021 at 12:05 AM ^
I’ve actually heard this said on national radio multiple times in the last week or so. The equivalent of clickbait via the radio.
January 29th, 2021 at 8:04 AM ^
Ahh, the rare dialbait.
January 29th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
Isn't that basically the sports talk radio business model?
January 29th, 2021 at 12:03 AM ^
To be clear I don’t think these ludicrous things. It’s waaaaayyy too early to start that talk.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:08 AM ^
Drinking a Modelo on my back porch with an American spirit, a nice bowl packed and my two aussies by my side.
Cheers!
January 29th, 2021 at 12:40 AM ^
Are your Aussies imaginary?
January 29th, 2021 at 12:13 AM ^
I haven't heard a sane conversation throwing Mahomes in the GOAT category. To have two SB wins by 25 years old would put him on pace to match TB12's numbers, but a whole lot has to go right in the Chief organization to keep winning for another 10-15 years.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:16 AM ^
Lay off the Duff, Duffman.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:30 AM ^
The GOAT is and will always be Charlie Batch
January 29th, 2021 at 12:33 AM ^
One year at a time. Mahomes is amazing. He was also four years old when Tom Brady mugged Alabama in the Orange Bowl.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:52 AM ^
Well said. Similarly, remember how everyone was certain that Tiger would decimate Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major championships record? Time is funny that way...
January 29th, 2021 at 1:05 AM ^
Yep. If we went back 10 years to January 2011 - you could have gotten very long odds on "Aaron Rodgers never again appears in a Super Bowl."
As of the moment, that bet would be paying off.
January 29th, 2021 at 6:43 AM ^
Just to add another - Dan Marino made it to the SB in 1984 (his second season) and never made in back.
January 29th, 2021 at 7:56 AM ^
Same, Matt Stafford was in SB in his 3rd year and never again....oh wait.
January 29th, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
I was thinking of Marino, too.
After that season, you could have made the same case for eventual GOAT-dom for Marino as you can for Mahomes now. However, vven though Marino had a long and highly successful career and is now in the Hall of Fame, 1984 was arguably the peak of his career. He never had a better year statistically and he never made it to the Super Bowl again.
Will the past two seasons end up being the highlights of Pat Mahomes' career? I personally hope not, as I like to watch him play, but fuck if I know. He could easily end up in the Hall of Fame playing the rest of his career at a slightly lower level than he has been. Like Marino.
(I kind of wonder what would have happened if the Dolphins had not traded Anthony Carter to the Vikings. Yeah, they had Mark Duper and Mark Clayton already, but it would have been interesting to see.)
January 29th, 2021 at 11:51 AM ^
Dan Marino was ahead of his time. A guy that good at passing would be breaking his own records with some frequency and would win titles in a way that just didn't come easily in the 80s and 90s.
January 29th, 2021 at 8:41 AM ^
Yeah great analogy. Tiger is really short of career accomplishments. Wtf
January 29th, 2021 at 9:47 AM ^
Calm down Tiger - there can only be one GOAT
January 29th, 2021 at 8:52 AM ^
Tiger Woods only has won 15 majors boy did he fall short on his quest to be a decent golfer. No where near the GOAT discussion posed by the OP.
January 29th, 2021 at 8:58 AM ^
Well, that wasn’t the point. Tiger has had a great career. For mY money he’s the greatest golfer ever. But in 2008 it looked like he would blitz past Jack’s 18. I figured he’d end with 25. But age, injury, and “other life matters” have a way of derailing things. As Jack said about Tiger: “He has to do it first.”
Longevity and staying injury-free are part of athletic greatness. Whether Mahomes can accomplish that can only be known in hindsight. In the meantime let’s just enjoy what Brady has accomplished as well as what Mahomes has on their own merits. Comparison is the thief of joy, as Bill Parcells used to say.
January 29th, 2021 at 9:04 AM ^
Well said.
January 29th, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^
This is a terrible take. He didn't win 18. I think that's was the point. People thought he would blow past 18. He didn't.
January 29th, 2021 at 8:55 AM ^
So all Mahomes has to do is leave the average looking side chicks alone and he'll be alright.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:34 AM ^
How may times has Mahomes gotten hurt already? I do not think he will have a career as long as Brady´s.
January 29th, 2021 at 12:56 AM ^
He's 25 years old. It's literally impossible to consider Mahomes as a prospective member of the NFL's all-time Mount Rushmore right now.