It has become a common refrain for Kansas City Chiefs fans in the 2026 offseason to look at quarterback rankings and feel frustration. Patrick Mahomes is coming off the worst season of his career, one that previously had never ended short of the AFC Championship, and pundits are jumping at the chance to use this outlier of a year to push the veteran down in their quarterback rankings. The latest example of this comes via ESPN's Michelle Smallmon, where Mahomes ranked fifth on the list.
Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow were all put ahead of a player who has more Super Bowl wins than these four quarterbacks combined. Burrow is the only one of this group who has beaten Mahomes in a game that truly mattered, way back in 2021. No question, quarterback rankings should go deeper than stats alone, and it is yet another example of the fact that Mahomes is going to have to take back respect.
There is a piece of Mahomes that has a bit of Michael Jordan or Tom Brady in his ability to hear all of the noise while saying all the right things and not forgetting a thing. No shortage of motivation has been provided over the course of the 2026 offseason, and this is just the latest example of the level of disrespect for a quarterback who has played in five Super Bowls, won two MVPs, and three Super Bowl MVPs.
Chiefs fans should expect a huge season ahead as media fuels Mahomes
Numbers for Mahomes have been down in recent seasons to less than 4,000 passing yards in both 2024 and '25, as well as passing TD seasons of 26 and 22. There is no way around this fact, but a huge piece of this is due to roster construction and Mahomes being forced to play a specific way.
The quarterback understood the Chiefs no longer had the offense to go bombs away and play a fun, free-flowing brand of football. What was being asked of the signal-caller was to protect the football, use his legs, sustain drives, and lean on the defense of Steve Spagnuolo.
Fans who watched the past couple of seasons understand that this is the reason for the stats declining and not any truly meaningful individual talent regression. Mahomes is as great as he has ever been, and the upcoming season is going to serve as a reminder of this, despite the now 30-year-old coming off an ACL tear.
Ranking the quarterback so low is disrespectful to what his career has been in comparison to his peers. In truth, there isn't one resume that can stack up to the signal caller when it comes to currently active players. Mahomes remains the league's standard, and nobody comes close.
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