Surprising Stat Proves Patrick Mahomes' Incredible Value to KC Chiefs Offense
By Joe Summers
The Chiefs' offense hasn't met fans' expectations and Patrick Mahomes is on pace for the worst statistical season of his career.
That being said, one surprising statistic proves Mahomes is carrying this offense to an even larger degree than we realized. We know the receivers are struggling, but the problem may be worse than we initially thought.
Maybe oddsmakers knew what they were doing in making Mahomes the MVP favorite, after all.
Surprising Stat Proves Patrick Mahomes' Incredible Value to Chiefs Offense
A look at the average separation a QBs receivers generate and how often QBs throw to an open man. pic.twitter.com/rMO6bIDaLx
— Jrfortgang (@throwthedamball) November 9, 2023
Look at Mahomes up in the top left of this graph.
His high placement on the Y-axis indicates he's among the league's leaders in percentage of throws to open targets. Thus, Mahomes throws to receivers deemed "open" at an elite level.
However, Mahomes' orientation on the X-axis shows his receivers get separation at one of the lowest rates in the NFL. Chiefs' receivers don't get open, but Mahomes still throws to open receivers as much as anyone.
With that context, it becomes even more absurd that Mahomes is on pace for a career-high in completion percentage (68.6%).
When you remove scrambles from the equation, Mahomes' excellence with this comparison grows:
— Jrfortgang (@throwthedamball) November 9, 2023
If that seems like that doesn't make sense, you're correct. No QB should be as high as Mahomes is on the graph AND as far left as he is.
The receivers' poor performance is the biggest disappointment of the season, though these graphs show just how bad the collective effort is.
Mahomes has virtually no margin for error, yet he's still among the NFL's passing leaders and has the Chiefs atop the AFC.
He's the Chiefs' Offensive Player of the Year for a reason, though it's obvious we aren't appreciating Mahomes' singular brilliance in the way we should be.
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