Patrick Mahomes has made the most of his still-young NFL career to this point. He was a first-round pick in 2017, won the league MVP in his first season as the starter in 2018, and is fresh off a 2019 campaign where he won his first Super Bowl and was Super Bowl MVP. Oh yeah, and he just inked a mega extension with the Kansas City Chiefs that is worth up to a half-billion dollars. Not too shabby.
The 24-year-old quarterback doesn't appear to be resting on his accomplishments, however, as he noted in his hype video following his extension that he and the Chiefs are "chasing a dynasty." Of course, that could be taken in a number of different ways. Just taking it at face value, Mahomes is saying that he's trying to build a dynasty with his team in Kansas City. If you peel it back a bit more, however, you could make the case that what he's "chasing" is the dynasty in New England and the level of success the Patriots have enjoyed over the last two-decades with Tom Brady. That's the gold standard for team success in the NFL and Mahomes could be eyeing that mile marker as his career goal to surpass.
During an appearance on ESPN over the weekend while playing in the American Century Championship golf tournament, Mahomes did note that he's at least trying to get to Brady's all-time record of six Super Bowl championships.
"I don't know if there is a number," he said. "Obviously, you try and chase greatness and Tom's got six. I am going to try and do whatever I can to at least get to that number. I understand how hard that is, how it was a one of kind thing for Tom to be able to get to nine Super Bowls and win six of them. I am just going to go about the process every single day of trying to make myself better and do whatever I can to make the Kansas City Chiefs better."
Of course, this is what Mahomes (and every other quarterback in the league) should be striving for. If you're not trying to knock Brady off his throne as the best ever, what's the point? While it is somewhat of a "no kidding" answer, Mahomes seems to be in the best position possible to actually do it when his career is in the books.
As noted above, he's already made tremendous progress in such a short amount of time, as he's only entering his third (!) season as the full-time starter for the Chiefs. Over that time, he's already being mentioned as one of the very best and most talented to ever play the position.
"It's obviously premature. Obviously, we've had a great start to my career," he said. "I am blessed to be in a great organization and have a great team around me, which has made the transition easier for me. Now, it is about stacking those years. It is about trying to find ways to get back to the Super Bowl, win those Super Bowl championships and I think if I go out there every single year and I put my best effort forward, when I get to the end of my career I'll be happy with where I am at."
While Mahomes did sign the largest deal in American sports history, Kansas City knowing the books on its most important player and the quarterback not taking them to the wall in contract negotiations is extremely valuable to keep the franchise competitive and one-day possibly be the next great dynasty in the NFL.
