Patrick Mahomes used to be known for his risky throws, but shy away from the risk in recent years. Now he wants to build on earlier times – can that work?
By Oliver Jensen,
He wants to go back to his origin!
Patrick Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks of our time. In the past three seasons, he always led the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl – the final was won twice. Overall, the 30-year-old looks back on three Super Bowl victories.
Nevertheless, Mahomes’s game had changed in the recent past. Simply put: Mahomes had almost completely stopped testing the defense in downfield with deep throws.
NFL: Kansas City Chiefs mit Offensivproblemen
He himself had the feeling of playing the safe pass too often. It was the spectacular plays with which Mahomes once became a superstar.
Mahomes promised his teammate improvement in the training camp. “I told the boys that they should take me a responsible. I wanted to hold myself as a responsibility by giving the boys a chance to make big plays,” the passer revealed last Wednesday.
In fact, he implemented his project. Mahomes not only makes more risky plays – he also developed into one of the most aggressive quarterbacks of the NFL again when it comes to throwing the ball deep.
To express this once in numbers: In the 2024 season, he threw only 50 passes for more than 20 yards. Mahomes only took 29th place in the NFL. He practically only did this if he had the sure feeling that he could attach the passport. This arrived 42 passes – 27th place in the NFL.
Patrick Mahomes plays the risky ball more often
In the current season, Mahomes is taking more risks and already threw 15 passes for more than 20 yards in the first three games. This is the fourth highest value of the league. Although he only brought nine passes to it with the teammate, but that is enough for eleventh place in the NFL.
Another interesting aspect are the Air Yards-Per-attached. This is a key figure in football, which measures how many yards of football in the air (ie “traveling through the air”) per pass test.
When Mahomes played his first season as a starting quarterback, this value was 9.1 yards on average. Since then, the average has dropped year after year before it reached the personal low of 6.1 yards last season. In the current season, however, Mahomes is 8.6 yards – the second highest value of his career.
The only problem is that the offense has not yet gotten better. Only one of the first three season games was won. On average, 207.7 Passing Yards per game. The Chiefs thus occupy 15th place in the NFL. Last season they were slightly better with an average of 222.4 yards (14th place).
Mahomes is nevertheless confident: “I am just excited to see where this offense is going. I know that it was not the perfect product that we launched on the market so far, but there was also a lot good.”
Tyquan Thornton is the receiver for high balls
In particular, Mahomes has started to develop a chemistry with the fast receiver Tyquan Thornton, which was most often targeted when the team is thrown.
A good example was a risky move in the 22:9 victory against the New York Giants on Sunday when Thornton put a jump-ball catch for 33 yards in a third-and-10-throw.
“I think if boys like Tyquan come down with the catch, it gives me confidence so that I can throw the ball wide and try to make plays. We’ll get better and better.”
The Chiefs will have to provide proof of this next Sunday in the game against the Baltimore Ravens, which also have a record of a victory and two defeats.
