Even in a so-called down year, Patrick Mahomes' herculean ability during the playoffs has propelled him to a seventh consecutive AFC Championship with the Chiefs. Since taking over for veteran Alex Smith, Mahomes has appeared in the AFC title game every year. With two Super Bowl wins already under his belt at 28, it's now time to start making serious accolade comparisons to the league's GOAT quarterback, Tom Brady.
When discussing the career arcs of both Mahomes and Brady, there sure are similarities. Both players spent a redshirt season learning behind a seasoned veteran -- Brady worked with Drew Bledsoe. When Brady was Mahomes' age, he'd already won three championships -- Mahomes is now going for his third.
Most importantly, both quarterbacks have a clutch gene in their DNA, finding ways to sniff out January wins regardless of what occurred during the regular season. The Patriots won two of their six crowns during season in which they finished with a record of 11-5. The Chiefs finished 11-6 this season, and lost to the Packers, Bills, and Raiders within the last six weeks of the campaign.
As it turns out, securing the AFC's first-round bye was small potatoes for the Chiefs. The top-overall seed is still important, though, as both the 49ers and Ravens had an extra week of rest and will surely enjoy home-field advantage this Sunday. But an invitation to the playoffs, regardless of seeding, was still more important than getting the coveted top spot. The Chiefs' current run is that much more impressive, when considering a Super Bowl 58 appearance requires two playoff wins on the road. Even for Mahomes, it's new territory.
Mahomes is part of a new generation of pro athletes that wants more out of life than just a playing career. Could this mean his NFL days are numbered? Perhaps. He's married with two kids and has already earned $136 million in contracts, per Spotrac. There's more to life than football. Brady was married and divorced twice, which isn't to say his children aren't his top priority, but football was clearly always the focus. It's unlikely that Mahomes walks away from the NFL in the next few years, but at some point down the line it could restrict him from matching Brady's seven rings.
This'll perhaps be the Chiefs' toughest test, with Lamar Jackson and a high-powered Ravens team awaiting them in Baltimore. Excluding a meaningless season finale against the Steelers, the Ravens haven't just beaten their last seven opponents -- they've bullied them, winning by an average margin of 17.3 points. If Kansas City can pull out another win on the road and then go back-to-back with another Lombardi Trophy hoisted, it's impossible not to start having a discussion about Mahomes being better than Brady.
The Patriots were the most recent team to win back-to-back Super Bowls -- Brady led them to wins in 2003 and 2004. It's been two decades since then.
The overlying commonalties are glaring down to the big brother-little brother dynamic Mahomes has with Josh Allen and a Bills team he's never lost to in the AFC playoffs. While Brady was commonly viewed as better than Peyton Manning – an 11-6 record in head-to-head matchups backs that up – he did lose their last three playoff matchups, including the 2016 AFC title game.
Mahomes is still Buffalo's kryptonite, as Kansas City has eliminated them in three of the last four postseasons. Mahomes' only other recent key loss in the playoffs came against Joe Burrow and the Bengals, but he's outplayed him, Jackson, and Allen as the only member of this quarterback group with Lombardi hardware. Longevity in widespread dominance and superiority to competition within the AFC is the final box to check, and if Mahomes is able to beat the Ravens, it's easier to see why he should be viewed on the same level as Brady.
While the Chiefs are on the brink of solidifying an NFL dynasty, another team eliminated this Sunday could pose a threat to them at some point. In the first year under first-time head coach DeMeco Ryans and rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, the Texans won eight more games than they did in 2022. They're not yet a force to be reckoned with, but they're well on the way to becoming it.
On their fourth head coach in as many years, the Texans snapped a streak of three straight seasons with double-digit losses and then won the AFC South in doing so. A commanding 45-14 win over the Browns in the wild-card round was icing on the cake. Stroud was a huge part of the reason why fans should be optimistic moving forward, as he ranked eighth in the NFL in passing yards and threw just five interceptions. Oh, and that statistic comes despite missing two regular season games. Talk about breathing fresh air into an organization.
Now the challenge is taking this franchise to newer heights. Since their 2002 inception, the Texans have never advanced beyond the AFC divisional round, and this season was no different. Only this time, things have a much different feel. Ryans and Stroud are still getting used to each other -- it's a new culture. So, this group in Houston seems to have a high ceiling.
With the Ravens, Bills, Bengals, and Chiefs crowding the AFC, this group can't waste any time smelling the roses. All the focus needs to be on improving the core around Stroud, bolstering a defense, and replacing offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who appears likely to depart for a head coaching role. Ryans is a solid CEO, but his origin comes from the defensive side of the ball, meaning the final part of that could be the most important.
Plenty of other struggling teams have lifted themselves out of the basement, only to find themselves stuck in neutral. Granted, every franchise has its own ceiling, but finding ways to compete for championships should always be the goal. The Texans have a chance to do so, though the roster and infrastructure needs improvements to keep up with the league's top-tier contenders.
The Texans are in a better position than they've ever been in, organizationally. Once fans get accustomed to watching Stroud's brilliance on a weekly basis, the standards will then get higher. Their divisional-round loss in Baltimore last weekend signaled the beginning of a fun stretch of Texans football more than it represented the end of the season.
Hopefully some teams from these playoffs have been keeping close tabs on the Jags, as a way to prevent the throttle from going in reverse. Jacksonville came up with an emotional comeback win over the Chargers in last season's wild-card round, gave Kansas City a tough battle in the divisional round, and then failed to make the playoffs this year. How this Texans unit builds off this season and uses the momentum to improve will set the tone for Ryans and Stroud moving forward. Gone are the days when Houston would receive a gold star just for reaching the .500 mark.