Mahomes Still In NFL Top 20 Despite His Worst Stats Season

We knew that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes would still have a place in the upper tier of the NFL’s Top 100 list, but where has been a mystery for some time. Mahomes had the worst statistical season of his legendary career so far, and and now he’s landed at No. 18 in the latest release as the regular season draws closer. 

It’s a bit of a surprise, but Mahomes’ landing spot was always going to be that regardless of where he was ranked because last year was so unexpected. Mahomes had his worst season since becoming the Chiefs starter back in 2018, and that’s translated to his lowest ranking on this list. 

As Grant Gordon of NFL.com noted, though, the equity Mahomes has accumulated in his career is evident in this ranking, and there are multiple other stats worth noting. Before Mahomes was sidelined with a torn ACL and LCL, the quarterback had already rushed for career bests in yards, touchdowns and yards per game as he tried to keep the Chiefs afloat in one close loss after another. 

Mahomes also eclipsed 3,500 passing years for the eighth straight season, and his value became more than evident when the Chiefs immediately went 0-3 once he was out and basically fell apart down the stretch. 

Ironically, it’s those brillians rushing stats that tell the story of what’s happened going forward. Mahomes led the Chiefs with 18 runs of at least ten yards, andhis 56.3 percent rush success rate was impressive given the number of carries he had. The quarterback led Kansas City in rushing yardage for the first five weeks of the season which was a serious indictment of the team’s rushing game. 

To remedy that, the Chiefs went out and signed running back Kenneth Walker III in free agency to provide some semblance of a legitimate running game. Mahomes is also taking more snaps under center as he continues to rehab from his knee injury, but he has progressed to doing rollouts and trying to make the same kinds of magical plays he was able to pull off before the injury. 

Mahomes won’t play in the Chiefs’ second preseason game this weekend, with the announcement coming from coach Andy Reid today in a writeup from Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. The Chiefs have one more preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks on Aug. 28, and there’s been no word on whether he’ll play a series or two in that one, either.