WHAT ELSE CAN MAHOMES DO FOR AN ENCORE?
The Chiefs QB is due for big money on his next contract, but could take a pay cut
On the day when Kansas City Chiefs players reported to the 2019 training camp, in late July, I asked Patrick Mahomes what he could possibly do for an encore after throwing 50 touchdown passes and named NFL MVP in his first season of starting.
“If we keep getting better as a team,” Mahomes said, “and I keep doing what got me here — an everyday process of getting better each and every day — I think that that will kind of handle itself in the end.”
Uh, yeah. Nice handling. Nice end.
Thanks to an indomitable self-confidence and unmatched arm talent, the 24-year-old Mahomes willed his Chiefs off the mat in the final eight minutes of Super Bowl LIV on Sunday night, and put up a three-touchdown comeback-for-the-ages in a 31-20 defeat of the San Francisco 49ers.
Mahomes ignited the rally with a game-rocking, long-bomb, cross-field pass completion on what essentially amounted to a convert-or-lose 3rd-and-15 — a stunning, 44-yard play sure to enter the Super Bowl pantheon.
So, on Monday morning at his Super Bowl MVP news conference at a downtown hotel, I got the chance to ask Mahomes — after this — what he could possibly do for an encore.
“Win another one,” Mahomes said. “That’s it.”
A couple minutes earlier he said: “It was awesome to be able to do it this year. I’m going to enjoy it for a couple of weeks, but knowing I have the mindset we’re going to try to do more stuff, and knowing that everybody’s going to be gunning for us … Hopefully we’ll be back on this stage.”
With that, the Texas native left South Florida to fly up to Disney World, along with a Make -a-wish Foundation 10-year-old boy, as part of Mahomes’ postmvp promotional responsibilities.
Mahomes said he has been blessed to always have had a head coach — in high school, at Texas Tech University in Lubbock with Kliff Kingsbury (now head coach of the NFL’S Arizona Cardinals), and now in Kansas City with Andy Reid — who has been patient with him, and allows him to make all those delicious, unconventional, sometimes never-before-tried plays. Such as no-look passes, wrong-handed passes, cross-field passes, etc.
“I obviously try to work on the fundamentals and do everything like that, but at the same time they let me be who I am,” Mahomes said. “I think, having all those coaches who supported me and let me be who I am, it’s helped me get to where I’m at today.”
A few of Mahomes’ high school teammates and his head coach Adam Cook from Whitehouse High in Whitehouse, Texas, attended Sunday’s game.
“They showed me a lot of support, and I’m glad they were here for this moment,” Mahomes said. “I’ve been around a lot of people that supported me all the way through.”
Mahomes is now eligible, after three complete seasons, to sign an extension with the Chiefs. His rookie contract can be extended by the club through the 2021 season, because he was a first-round draft pick, but you can expect the Chiefs to attempt to lock up Mahomes to a long-term deal.
It won’t come inexpensively. Mahomes ought to be able to command close at least $35 million per season, probably most or all guaranteed. If he’s not worth it, who is?
“Obviously I want to be in Kansas City for a long time (and) win a lot of football games here,” he said.
Maybe it was just me, but it sure seemed as though Mahomes hinted he might be willing to take a lesser amount in order to maximize the rest of the team’s talent — something Tom Brady did throughout the 2010s, a huge factor in helping the New England Patriots reach five more Super Bowls, winning three over the decade.
“For me,” Mahomes said about second contract negotiations, “it’s about trusting those people (in the Chiefs organization) and finding the best way to do it, in order to have the best team around me.”