KC Chiefs: Reasons to be excited for 2019 season

6 of 6

Patrick Mahomes (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

If you are compiling any kind of positive list about the Kansas City Chiefs and it doesn’t include Patrick Mahomes, you’re probably an Oakland/Las Vegas/San Francisco Raiders fan.

The success of the current Chiefs squad begins and ends with Mahomes. He’s as dynamic as he is humble, talented as he is confident and leads without saying any more than he needs to:

#Chiefs Patrick Mahomes and #Colts Andrew Luck discussing the Pro-Bowl QB rotation is... something? pic.twitter.com/gNvmjwN3rL
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) February 2, 2019

He doesn’t quite have the golly gee, oh shucks persona of Andrew Luck, but he certainly doesn’t carry himself like someone who can rip your heart open with a 30-yard bullet across his body, or complete a left-handed first-down toss during a game-winning drive while your best pass rusher is wrapped around his ankles.

But that’s exactly who he is.

More from Kansas City Chiefs

At 23-years-old he had, statistically, the second-best season a quarterback has ever had in the National Football League. While completing 66 percent of his passes he also tossed 50 touchdowns and threw for 5,097 yards.

A list of football players not named Patrick Mahomes to throw at least 50 touchdowns in a season starts with Peyton Manning (55) and ends with Tom Brady (50).

The list to throw for 5,000 yards in a season isn’t much longer and includes Manning, Brady, Drew Brees, Dan Marino, Ben Roethlisberger and Matthew Stafford. That’s 11 Super Bowl rings — sorry Dan and Matt — and nine league MVPs — sorry Ben and Matt (again).

Mahomes’ success through the air in 2018 already places him ninth on the Chiefs’ all-time touchdown passing list. Ninth. If he plays blindfolded next season and throws just 18 touchdowns, he’ll move up to fifth on the list, just 35 shy of Smith, who spent five seasons under center with the Chiefs.

There’s more.

He broke the franchise’s single-season touchdown passing record in Week 10, his 8.79 yards per attempt led the NFL among full-time quarterbacks and he became the first Kansas City quarterback to win a home playoff game since Joe Cool did so in January 1993 — nearly three years before Mahomes was born.

We could go on and on, but if you’ve made it this far you already know.

With all due respect to Hall of Famer Len Dawson, the Chiefs have never seen a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes. He’s a transcendent figure. He alone is responsible for the buzz that still hasn’t left Kansas City since he threw four touchdowns in an opening-season win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

Next. Mock Draft: Chiefs Add Good Mix of Offense and Defense. dark

Hill, Kelce, Watkins and Co. are a talented bunch. But if Smith was under center this past year — and you’re honest with yourself — you understand there is no way the Chiefs outscore every other team in the NFL, come within a Dee Ford brain fart of the Super Bowl and enter the 2019 season as the favorite to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

Patrick Mahomes II did that. And he’s going to do it again next season. For that, Chiefs fans, be thankful. Be very thankful.

Home/Kansas City Chiefs