Is Patrick Mahomes already a first-ballot Hall of Famer?
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is a two-time champion. At 27 years old, is he already an all-time great?
On Sunday night, Patrick Mahomes did it again.
In beating the Philadelphia Eagles, Mahomes led the Kansas City Chiefs to their (and his) second Super Bowl victory in four years. Mahomes was near-flawless on the evening, completing 21-of-27 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns. His QBR — which is geared on a scale of 1-100 — checked in at 96.4.
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Now, the question isn’t about whether Mahomes would make the Hall of Fame if he walked away from football at 27 years old. The question is whether he would be enshrined on the first ballot.
Looking at the accolades and data points, the answer would seem to be a resounding yes.
Mahomes has been a starter for five NFL seasons. The Chiefs have won the AFC West all five years (and seven straight times, dating back to the Alex Smith era). As well as that, they have hosted the AFC Championship Game a record five consecutive times. They’ve reached three Super Bowls and won twice.
Those are the team checkmarks for Mahomes. The individual ones are somehow arguably more impressive.
Kansas City has watched as Mahomes took the league by storm as a first-year starter in 2018, throwing for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns. He joined Peyton Manning as the only player in NFL history to throw for at least 50 scores and surpass 5,000 yards in the same season.
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Mahomes won the NFL MVP award that season, and replicated the feat in 2022 with another show-stopping performance. The Chiefs went 14-3 while Mahomes led the league with 5,250 passing yards and 41 touchdowns, helping Kansas City earn the No. 1 seed.
Over his career, Mahomes’ regular-season record is 64-16. In the playoffs, he’s 11-3 with 35 touchdowns against seven interceptions. He’s now a two-time champ and a two-time Super Bowl MVP, awards to go with his multiple league MVPs.
The only other players to win multiple NFL and Super Bowl MVPs, while also winning at least two Super Bowls as a starter are Tom Brady and Joe Montana.
It’s hard to make a compelling case against Mahomes as anything other than a top-tier Hall of Famer, even at 27 years old and after just five seasons.
