Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
With all due respect to other NFL quarterbacks – including whoever goes second – the pecking order is clear aside from their family and friends. The rest of us won’t hesitate to make Patrick Mahomes our first pick at QB if we’re choosing squads on the playground.
That’s nothing against anyone else, including Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, the presumptive MVP who led and followed the Ravens to defeat against Kansas City on Sunday.
I was rooting for Jackson to get over the hump and reach his first Super Bowl (ditto for the Detroit Lions later that heartbreaking evening), and I expected Baltimore to win. The Ravens produced an all-time great regular season, crushing playoff teams like the Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans, while Jackson escaped injury for a change. It was his time.
But it’s Mahomes’ clock and he’s still winding up.
This is his fourth Super Bowl appearance in six seasons as the Chiefs’ starting QB. The other two seasons ended one step away in the AFC Championship game. Feel free to bet against him getting that far next year, but it wouldn’t be the smartest play.
“You don’t take it for granted,” Mahomes told reporters Sunday after ending Baltimore’s season. “You never know how many [Super Bowls] you’re going to get to, or if you’re going to get to any. It truly is special just to do it with these guys after what we’ve been through all season long, guys coming together, it really is special. But I told them the job’s not done. Our job now is to prepare ourselves to play a good football team in the Super Bowl and try to get that ring.”
Rings are zero-sum propositions. You either win one or you don’t, no ties allowed. Championships aren’t a prerequisite for greatness, but they represent the Big Joker each season. A Super Bowl win is the only guaranteed book, no matter your opponents’ hand or how well they play. Nothing beats the Lombardi Trophy, not gaudy statistics and season records, and not personal awards like the MVP.
Jackson had a fantastic season and rightfully should win his second MVP award on Feb. 8, a few days before Mahomes faces San Francisco and shoots for his third Super Bowl MVP. There’s no shame in being ranked below Mahomes because everyone else is there, too. The primary concern for Jackson is producing peak-level performances in the most pressure-packed big games.
That wasn’t the case against Kansas City, which held him to 67 passing yards halfway through the third quarter before intercepting a shaky pass that virtually sealed the deal. Jackson is now 2-4 in career playoff games, having completed a mere 57.4% of his passes with six touchdowns, six picks and 26 sacks. Whether you call him a choker or someone who fails to meet the moment, the bottom line is unchanged. I still think he can do it, but only the results can prove it.
I’m not frustrated at all,” Jackson said after the 17-10 defeat. “I’m angry about losing. We were a game away from the Super Bowl. We’ve been waiting all this time, all these moments for an opportunity like this, and we fell short, but I feel like our team is going to build. This offseason, we’re going to get right, get better, grind and try to be in this position again but on the other side of victory.”
He’ll have to surpass a gauntlet of elite AFC quarterbacks — including the amazing C.J. Stroud of Houston — with Mahomes at the end where success isn’t certain. Warren Moon never reached the Super Bowl, yet he reached the Hall of Fame. Donovan McNabb played in five NFC championship games but just one Super Bowl. Steve McNair split two conference title games and came up a yard shy of victory in his lone Super Bowl appearance.
Winning to become the last QB standing is a challenge under any circumstance and exceedingly difficult for the current crop. Mahomes is on the verge of tying Tom Brady for most Super Bowl rings through six seasons as a full-time starter. Brady is the GOAT with seven titles and a 2-0 postseason record against Mahomes, but perhaps Mahomes is just getting started.
“There’s nothing that Patrick can do, in my opinion, that takes away from what I tried to accomplish in my career and there’s nothing I did that can take away from what he’s trying to accomplish,” Brady said Tuesday on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Mahomes isn’t Brady and Jackson isn’t Mahomes, but we’d have less to talk about without such discussions like Jordan vs LeBron. If we limit the conversation to rings, no one is Bill Russell, which brings us back to the playground.
Given the first pick out of every current quarterback, who ya got? Lemme answer by paraphrasing a bar from Lawrence “Kris” Parker.
Mahomes is No. 1; sorry, I lied.
He’s No. 1, 2 and 3 through 5.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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