Why Mahomes, Chiefs Don’t Give Burnt End About Top 100 Players

And because it was a failure last season, thanks to a 40-22 setback against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 59, no one in the Chiefs organization gives a Jack’s Stack burnt end about those rankings.

Mahomes ranked third-best quarterback

But for the record, in the annual player vote of the NFL’s top 100 players, four superstars were ranked ahead of the three-time Super Bowl MVP: Ja’Marr Chase (fourth), Josh Allen (third), Lamar Jackson (second) and Saquon Barkley (first).

The Super Bowl hangover is real, as the 49ers proved last season. But the psychological effect of the Chiefs losing the big game could exist more on the minds of players outside their locker room.

“I’m super excited,” Mahomes said Sunday, preparing to kick off his ninth NFL season on Friday in São Paulo, Brazil (7 p.m. CT, YouTube, KSHB-TV 41, 96.5 The Fan). “Get to go out there and play the game that you love.

“And we got a lot of guys that are super hungry and want to go out there and put on a show. And so, for us, we have to just go out there with the mentality, let's have some fun playing, playing the game that we love, and try to go out there and win football games.”

The NFL's enigma

They won a lot of games last year, going 15-2 in the regular season before a devastating Super Bowl loss. And this season, one of the biggest NFL enigmas could actually win fewer games and wind up winning the Super Bowl. Those two things could be true if the Chiefs can continue to tap into the rediscovered deep ball, something they flashed in the preseason.

“Patrick Mahomes completed 74 downfield passes (10-plus air yards) for 1,512 yards, averaging 10.0 yards per attempt, all of which are career-lows,” NFL.com’s Michael Baca wrote on Tuesday. “From 2018-2023, he led all QBs in downfield completions (562) and yards (13,078) while generating 11.9 yards per attempt (fourth-most among QBs with at least 250 downfield attempts in that span).”

But no one needed to remind Mahomes. All offseason, he’s been preaching how returning explosiveness into the Kansas City offense opens the entire playbook. And coaches have noticed.

“I think it's, for sure, the mindset,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said Monday. “It started not just right now, but it started in OTAs. And for him, it's when you start looking at just whether it's a progression. I'll use, for example, if there's something where there's a post over the top, or if there's something as simple as a guy in the flat with an intermediate route, it's the mindset of being able to know, you might not throw the post, but you're going to start there.”

The Chiefs would gladly start with a win on Friday to erase the sour aftertaste from their Super Bowl loss – regardless of whether Allen or Jackson outplay Mahomes. Kansas City’s sites are higher than preseason polls.