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A game with razor-thin margins—the ones Patrick Mahomes was able to create for himself, and his teammates, on the biggest stage, on Super Bowl LVII’s biggest play—is probably why I’m here, in the dog days of training camp, asking a 27-year-old about a potential run at becoming the greatest player ever. Because, if you listen to the folks around him, that play might’ve gone differently with the Mahomes of even just a few years ago.
And if that play had gone differently, there’d be a good chance Mahomes and I are having a totally different conversation on this sweltering morning in St. Joseph, Mo.
You know the situation. Third-and-2, 9:26 left, and the Chiefs clinging to a one-point lead, with the ball on the Eagles’ 4-yard line. If Kansas City settles for a field goal, Philadelphia is in less of a catch-up spot and can manage its next possession judiciously. Score there, and the Eagles are scrambling to respond and get a two-point conversion. Worst case, the Chiefs get the ball back quickly.
But almost right away, there’s a problem. Veteran tight end Travis Kelce is supposed to be lined up on Mahomes’s left, to the side of Skyy Moore, the motion man on the play. The play clock is running. The Chiefs have two timeouts. It’s the sort of spot where K.C. could afford to burn one—and the 23-year-old MVP version of Mahomes might have. Instead, while considering moving Kelce over or calling the timeout, the quarterback calmly peered at the defense. His eyes lit up. His voice raised.
In that moment, a huge one, Mahomes visualized how the call, modified by misalignment, could still win the play: With the jet motion Moore was coming on, before sprinting back to the corner, sure to cross up Philly CB Avonte Maddox. So the 27-year-old MVP version of Mahomes let the broken play roll.
“That was, to me, Brady-esque,” says one Chiefs staffer. “For him to be able to be in the biggest moment of the season and be O.K. knowing this play is still gonna work because of the coverage they’re in—play—that’s the No. 1 example that comes to mind.”
We know where Mahomes has been, in setting a historic pace through his first six years in the NFL. And, yes, that play helped to keep that pace.
But the play itself also demonstrated where Mahomes sees himself going, and that much was clear Wednesday as he and I dived into what’s next for a quarterback who has seemingly got it all. It showed, in the span of a couple dozen seconds, where he sees his own growth coming, and also where his thirst to learn from the greats that preceded him has taken him. It underscores, too, a pretty scary truth about all he’s accomplished.
He really is just getting started.
