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ESPN NFL Analyst Says Chiefs Have Taken Patrick Mahomes’s Greatness for Granted

Kansas City's incredible streak of success took a detour this year.

Kyle Koster

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs face an uncertain future.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs face an uncertain future. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
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The Kansas City Chiefs have already been eliminated from playoff contention, ending a spectacular run of success and opening up all kinds of questions about their future. Patrick Mahomes has undergone surgery to repair his torn ACL suffered last Sunday, and it remains to be seen if he'll be a full participant when the franchise attempts to bounce back from a disappointing season next September.

All good things, and even great things, must come to an end, but the derailment in Kansas City may be a case of cause and effect as Mahomes has repeatedly had to elevate a flawed team and structure to the greatest heights.

“They have not protected the franchise, which is Patrick Mahomes,” Chris Canty said on Tuesday's Get Up. “This year Patrick Mahomes is the second-most contacted quarterback. Over the last three years, no quarterback has been hit more on dropbacks than Patrick Mahomes. During that same span, their receivers lead the league in drops and they're 22nd in rushing. So you mean to tell me that your quarterback doesn't have any protection. Your quarterback doesn't have reliable receivers and you have no reliable running game to lean on.”

“That’s the best way to accentuate a top-five quarterback of all time?" he continued. "It makes no sense. Everyboy that's in charge in decision-making power in Kansas City needs to look themselves in the mirror and they need to get serious about trying to do right by Patrick Mahomes by foritfying that roster and putting better supporting cast around him. Until they do we will look at one of the greatest talents that we've seen at the quarterback position in NFL history and wonder why he can't get back to the level that we saw him at through the first seven years of his career.”

There's no way to spin not being able to protect the quarterback as a good thing. When that quarterback is one of the most precious assests in sports, it becomes even more glaring. Perhaps the Chiefs have been playing with fire for a while and finally got burned.

On the other hand, it could be argued that the Chiefs protected Mahomes long enough for him to bring an incredible amount of success to the franchise. And, for as good as he is individually, there are plenty of quarterbacks through the years that would have traded infrastructures in a second.

How the Chiefs rebuild will be really interesting to see as this offseason goes along. One that will be significantly longer than the team has experienced in years past.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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