The 12-team NFL playoffs are set, and the race for Super Bowl 53 is on. The Kansas City Chiefs, surprising or not, sit atop the AFC, have home field advantage for the entire playoffs, and are currently being led by the game's biggest young star.
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Whether it's throwing effortless 90-yard bombs, breaking the Internet, or starring in ketchup commercials, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has taken the entire league by storm in his first year as a full-time starter.
In 2018, helping lead the Chiefs to a 12-4 mark, Mahomes completed 66 percent of his passes for 5,097 yards with 50 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Those are some crazy video game numbers and they are even more amazing when you compare his first year stats against some of the all-time greats such as Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Tom Brady.
First year starting:
Peyton: 57%, 3,739 yards, 26 TDs, 28 INTs, 71 rating.
Brady: 64%, 2,843 yards, 18 TDs, 12 INTs, 87 rating.
Brees: 61%, 3,284 yards, 17 TDs, 16 INTs, 77 rating.
Mahomes: 66%, 5,097 yards, 50 TDs, 12 INTs, 114 rating.
— 🗣🎙‼️ (@LanceTHESPOKEN) January 1, 2019
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This cannot be real, right? Mahomes didn't really dominate the AFC West that much, did he? By comparison, the 6-foot-3 signal caller from Texas Tech is in a league of his own.
When comparing him to the legends of Manning, Brady and Brees, Mahomes had a higher completion percentage, over 1,000 passing yards more than the next best, nearly double the amount of touchdowns, tied for the fewest interceptions, and is the only one with a quarterback rating north of 90 at a sensational 114.
Some of the throws the former first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft made to Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and the rest of the receiving corps are absurd.
Granted, Mahomes, a Whitehouse, Texas native, had a year to learn head coach Andy Reid's system before he got thrown into the fire, but it is still incredible and beyond impressive for the player who replaced Alex Smith in KC.
A Pro Bowl selection in 2018 isn't enough here. For as special as Brees has been for the New Orleans Saints this regular season, Mahomes deserves the NFL's Most Valuable Player Award.
Truthfully, the MVP voting probably shouldn't be close, especially after hitting the 50-touchdown mark in Week 17 against the Oakland Raiders.
What Chiefs quarterback Pat Mahomes did in 2018 will be tough for any first-year starting quarterback to ever top.
