What so great about Patrick Mahomes II

American football quarterback

Patrick Lavon Mahomes II is an American football quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. The son of former Major League Baseball pitcher Pat Mahomes, he initially played college football and college baseball at Texas Tech University. 

Patrick Lavon Mahomes II  (Grim Reaper, Showtime, Magic Man, The Musician, Fatrick, The Gunslinger or Mahomeboy)

Position: QB Throws: Right

6-3, 227lb (190cm, 102kg)

Team: Kansas City Chiefs

What so great about Patrick Mahomes II?

Athletes who are great are known, but what makes them great is less well understood. An overview of what makes great athletes great, in order to assist. We'll continue our series with Patrick Mahomes II.

Mahomes plays his best when the defense anticipates his moves.

For all of his regular-season pass attempts, the quarterback anticipated points added per play given the likelihood that a play will involve a pass.

Mahomes' proficiency at a demanding level is not just reflected in the stats. Additionally, you can see it in the way he foresees the impromptu scrambles of his receivers. Time and time again, Mahomes has demonstrated an incredible ability to predict where his receivers will run their option routes, whether it be with spectacular no-look passes or by simply throwing the ball to a location on the field before his receivers are open. He occasionally throws before his receiver is even certain of his direction.

However, even when he and his receiver aren't communicating well, Mahomes still has the power to save the play.

Mahomes can throw the long ball with ease. 

The percentage of passes completed by Patrick Mahomes compared to the typical NFL quarterback, according to where they were completed on the field.

Mahomes is also capable of making deep throws from both clean pockets and pressure. Mahomes rolls to his right on the deep completion down the right sideline to Tyreek Hill as seen below, drawing the attention of a neighboring linebacker. Mahomes takes Hill past the numbers and drops an arcing pass perfectly into his outstretched hands despite throwing on the run while under pressure and abandoning his feet on the throw.

Mahomes simply does not have poor performances all that frequently due to the depth and range of his innate talent. In 43 of his first 50 career starts, Mahomes's QB Elo rating was above average, a level of consistency that is almost unheard of in NFL history. Only Johnny Unitas and Dan Marino had a higher percentage of above-average games over their first 50 starts since 1950, which was our first year with data.

Mahomes hardly ever plays a bad performance.

According to FiveThirtyEight's QB Elo ratings, the highest percentage of a quarterback's first 50 starts was better than average.

In the 150-year history of Major League Baseball, 23 perfect games have been thrown. The flawless season in the NFL is even more uncommon. A quarterback has a flawless season if there are no contests in which he performs below par. His debut year as a starter was in 2018! — Mahomes joined a select group that includes Hall of Famers Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas, and Dan Marino as well as certain future Canton entrants Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers when he pitched one of just eight flawless seasons in the previous 70 years.

Nobody is perfect, right? These men don't agree.

Since 1950, every season in which a quarterback in the NFL (or AFL) started at least ten games without ever performing below averagely,

It's challenging to match perfection, but when you don't have bad games, the metrics add up, and Mahomes' consistent dominance has produced obscene numbers. Two years after his flawless season, Mahomes' consistency has been documented in the annals of record-breaking performance. Mahomes immediately overtook the NFL leader in a number of important QB categories this season, including passing yards per game, adjusted yards per pass attempt, passer rating, and QBR, when he satisfied the minimum attempt threshold to be included.

Choose a statistic now. Mahomes is most likely No. 1.

Patrick Mahomes II is currently the all-time leader in NFL passing rate statistics.

Of course, it is unfair to compare Mahomes to athletes who have already retired because he is only 25 and his career is still young. But it is amazing how quickly he rose to the top of the all-time lists in so many significant categories. And when we combine perhaps the four most crucial quarterback metrics into a comprehensive advanced passing index, we find Mahomes in exceptional company: on a list with only Montana, my hero as a child, among passers who were at least two-thirds of a standard deviation better than an average QB in essentially every statistical category.

Joe Cool and Showtime are flawless.

NFL quarterbacks with at least 110 in the following four component categories since 1969: yards per attempt, touchdown rate, interception rate, and sack rate.

The NFL has never seen a quarterback with more talent than Mahomes. Under a head coach from the Hall of Fame, we've seen players like Montana and Steve Young succeed in systems designed to play to their strengths. While Young started his career later in life and spent four years as a backup, Montana lacked Mahomes' natural physical gifts. Despite his youth, Mahomes has no flaws in terms of his skill set, athleticism, or environment. Although there are high expectations for the rest of his career, the likelihood of failure seems improbably low. It's safe to say that Mahomes, assuming he stays healthy, has the capacity to equal the longevity of a player like Tom Brady and, in the process, redefine excellence at the quarterback position.

That seems challenging—almost impossible—but Mahomes is skilled in such situations.