The 'Patrick Mahomes as GOAT Discussion Died Last Night

The King is dead. Long live the King.

It seemed to me that any talk of Patrick Mahomes being in the conversation for the greatest of all time ended with 0:06 left in the 1st half of Super Bowl LV, when Tom Brady threw a touchdown pass to professional team-killer and lifelong lunatic Antonio Brown to give his Buccaneers a 21-6 lead over the Chiefs they would not relinquish. On the night, the 43 year old Brady finished with a passer rating of 125.8 and the MVP, to the 25 year old Mahomes 52.3. This coming just two years after Brady beat the Chiefs in Kansas City in the AFC title game, you'd have naturally assumed the issue was decided, the point moot, and the discussion permanently over at that point. You can argue things all you want, but when it's been decided on the field, then it's been decided. 

But not in this case. The question of whether Mahomes is the GOAT has persisted to this day, like it wasn't made null & void five years ago:

But last night should be the end of all such blithering nonsense. In a must-win situation. Against a division rival. Facing elimination in the AFC West race. In prime time. While enjoying one of the biggest homefield advantages in all of sports. Mahomes produced the worst stat line of his career:

To put that 19.8 passer rating in perspective, if Mahomes had spiked all 30 of his attempts into the ground, he'd have finished with a rating of 39.6. 

On the year, Mahomes is the dictionary definition of a statistically average QB. He's 16th in passer rating, 23rd in completion %, tied for 5th in interceptions with 10. More pressingly, his team is 6-7, losers of four out of their last five games, in 3rd place in their division, and probably have to win out to have a shot at a Wild Card berth. 

Note too that he's 30 years old. He should be in the prime of his prime seasons. With just the right mix of youth and experience. After all, when the One True GOAT turned 30, all he did was lead his team to 16-0 and rewrite the NFL record book. Here are all of his TD passes that season. I hope you have some free time because this video is over 7 minutes long:

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Now, a cynic might point out that Brady didn't win the Super Bowl that year. And of course, you'd be right. Thanks for killing the mood. That 2007 season did come in the middle of a 10-year championship drought. But even in that stretch where he missed the 2008 season and "only" led the Patriots to two Super Bowls and five AFC title games, he never once failed to at least win the division. Mahomes can't say the same. 

And yet, for all the differences between the two, Mahomes is coming dangerously close to a situation Brady never once faced in his astonishing career. Of all his superhuman accomplishments, this one might be the most remarkable:

I'll concede the Chiefs may still find a way into the postseason. They currently occupy the No. 19 spot in Next Gen Stats playoff probability models at 46.7%. So it's essentially a coin flip. But even if they do turn the ship around, go on a run and somehow sneak in, the GOAT discussion is no longer worth the mental calories it takes to have it. If it didn't die on the field in Tampa in February of 2021 (it did), it was certainly on life support. And its official time of death was last night. 

Like with Highlander, there can be only one GOAT. And he's a Patriot for Life: