When Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes takes the field for the Super Bowl on Sunday, he’ll have an opportunity to do what no quarterback has done in NFL history: win three Super Bowls in a row.
The Chiefs’ appearance in the game is a record in itself, as no team has made five Super Bowls in six years before this season.
While Kansas City has had several key contributors during its run — such as head coach Andy Reid, tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones, to name only a few — its success is spearheaded by Mahomes.
The Chiefs drafted Mahomes in 2017 and made him their starting quarterback the next year. In that season, he threw 50 touchdowns and won the MVP award. Since he entered the league, Mahomes has won two MVP awards and three Super Bowl MVP awards, and he has made at least the AFC championship game in every season as a starter.
Mahomes has lost only three times in 20 playoff games, and two of those losses have been at the hands of the consensus Greatest of All Time: New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.
Brady bested Mahomes in the 2018 AFC championship game with the Patriots and then again with the Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55.
When Brady — who, ironically, will be calling Sunday’s game for Fox — retired, it felt as though it would take a very long time for any player to match his record seven Super Bowl rings. And yet, through the first eight seasons of his career, Mahomes not only is on pace with Brady in terms of championships — he has a chance to eclipse him.
Take a look at Mahomes’ stats through his first eight seasons compared with Brady’s:
Mahomes has a clear edge over Brady in nearly every statistical category relevant to quarterbacks. Some of that can be attributed to the eras each spent his first eight seasons in, though it also paints a picture about how dominant and well-rounded Mahomes has been.
Notably, these stats don’t include Sunday’s game, which means Mahomes actually has a chance to pull ahead of Brady’s Super Bowl pace. If the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, Mahomes will have four championships in his first eight seasons, compared with Brady’s three.
One more win alone may not be enough to make Mahomes the GOAT. But regardless of the result Sunday, his case for the title is stacking up nicely as he enters the next eight years of his career.