Last week marked a long-awaited face-off between Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. With the Jackson contract questions no longer looming, we can finally focus on football. Going into last week’s game, it seemed that the storyline was about the showdown of star quarterbacks. How would a healthy Jackson fair against Mahomes? Naturally, with the league’s premier players at the helm, it made sense from a media perspective to promote the game as such. However, to the casual, or hardcore fan, we can see through it.
At this stage in his career, Mahomes is a three-time Super Bowl champion. He is on a path now to a potential three-peat, which is one of the toughest feats in sports, much less in football. But a discussion about who is the better QB befuddles me. Quite obviously, one man has championships and Super Bowl MVPs, and one doesn’t. We have to make sure that we tout Mahomes as the standard bearer for today’s quarterback. To me, having that title should be unequivocal; a foregone conclusion.
If anything, let this be the season in which Jackson finishes the job. With his immense talent, it’s not beyond the realm of comprehension that he could one day be a champion. But I can’t ever recall such a one-sided type of match-up being promoted as such a debate of greats. Frankly, there’s probably more of a debate between a player like Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Mahomes. He’s someone who has at least made it to the big game. And this season, he has some weapons that would make you think his squad has a legitimate claim to this season’s Super Bowl.
So, let’s give some spotlight to the squads that have been proven. When they match up with the defending champs, let’s start real conversations about that. But to me, there wasn’t much intrigue in the Ravens and Chiefs opening game beyond what success the teams had. It’s going to be a long season, and Lamar Jackson and others can easily have me eat my words come January. I’m open to that reality; I want to see him win. But until that happens, I’d rather we be surprised when Mahomes doesn’t win. He has earned that respect as far as I’m concerned.
There’s always such optimism at the start of a season. And right now, several teams can feel confident in making a great run. So I get eager to discuss premier QB match-ups. But I rather we focus on more discussion-worthy match-ups. No more foregone conclusion mess. Patrick Mahomes is the man to beat, and the league and the media needs to recognize him.
