NFL
Patrick Mahomes Earned Another Place in NFL History During the Chiefs Win Over the Ravens
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sports7 in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sports7, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterUpdated29 Sep 2020
At this point in his young career, Patrick Mahomes has already proven his greatness. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback can seemingly do anything he wants; from no-look passes to 50-yard bombs, his arsenal knows no limits. During a Monday Night Football meeting with the Baltimore Ravens, however, Mahomes provided another reminder of just how good he is.
While the on-field action was impressive enough—the Chiefs offense marched up and down the field with ease, even against a tough Ravens defense—Patrick Mahomes didn't merely add another win to his all-time resume. The quarterback also made some NFL history on the evening.
Patrick Mahomes has already proven to be a legitimate star
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If you're a long-time sports fan, you'll surely remember a handful of players who seemed destined for stardom, but never quite made it. Patrick Mahomes, however, has already established himself as one of football's top talents.
After playing three seasons of NCAA football at Texas Tech, Mahomes entered the 2017 NFL draft. While he had put up big numbers in college and could the ball harder than his peers, not everyone was sold on the young quarterback's fundamentals; Andy Reid and the Chiefs, however, had no such concerns.
KC traded up and, with some help from the Buffalo Bills, snagged Patrick Mahomes with the 10th-overall pick. That move has already changed the course of NFL history.
Mahomes spent his rookie season behind Alex Smith, but, at the start of the 2018 campaign, took over the Chiefs offense. He promptly threw for 50 touchdowns, broke the 5,000-yard plateau, and took Kansas City to the AFC title game; they couldn't make it to the Super Bowl, but the quarterback did take home the NFL MVP award. He followed that up with an equally impressive 2019 season, leading the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl title in 50 years.
Setting a new NFL record by reaching 10,000 passing yards
On Monday night, Patrick Mahomes threw for 385 yards as the Kansas City Chiefs offense lit up the Baltimore Ravens. The quarterback didn't need all of those yards to make history, though.
During the second quarter, Mahomes made NFL history when he completed a 13-yard pass to Travis Kelce. That pass moved the quarterback over 10,000 yards for his career, making him the fastest ever to reach that mark. The previous record, held by Kurt Warner, was 36 games; Mahomes accomplished the feat in 34 outings.
While there's room to debate the worth these sorts of records—it takes a certain amount of luck to land on a stacked offense, and playing under one of football's top offensive minds doesn't hurt—no one can question Mahomes' role in the accomplishment. Even with the benefit of playing a good situation, the quarterback has been showing legitimate skill week-in and week-out; it's not like he's tossing one-yard screens and letting his teammates do all the work.
At this point, the sky's the limit for Patrick Mahomes
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It goes without saying that you can't assume anything it pro sports; for all we know, Patrick Mahomes could suffer a freak injury or come down with the yips and never be the same. Setting those hypotheticals aside, though, it certainly seems like the sky is the limit for the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback.
On Monday night football, Mahomes showed exactly what makes him so dangerous. When the Ravens tried to blitz him, the quarterback seemed to always make the right read. When they sat back in coverage, he was able to fire perfect passes into tight windows to move the chains. No matter what the defense threw at him, the Chiefs QB had an answer.
During his brief time under center, we've already seen Mahomes mature, too. For all of his raw talent, he used to force things and throw into bad situations; now, he's learning to read defenses and realizing that you don't need to gain 30 yards on every play. That development, combined with his arm strength and improvisation, will only make the Chiefs' offense better.
On Monday night, Patrick Mahomes made NFL history as the fastest quarterback to throw for 10,000 yards. Barring anything unforeseen, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback will have a pretty large presence in that record book by the time he calls it a career.
Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference
