Patrick Mahomes heads into 9th season, here’s what the other QB GOAT’s did after 8 season in the league
It seems like Patrick Mahomes has been around forever, but he’s got a lot more time to cement his legacy as the greatest quarterback of all time.
If Patrick Mahomes decided today to hang it up and never take another snap in the NFL, he’d go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. Luckily for Kansas City Chiefs fans, he’s got plenty more gas in the tank after eight seasons in Arrowhead.
Halfway home?
It was a bitter way to end a season that was full of three-peat hopes. The Chiefs got rolled by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, but if we know Patrick Mahomes like we think we do he will come back hungrier than ever to get back on the podium and lift the Lombardi Trophy again.
The three time Super Bowl Champion is heading into his 9th season in the NFL, and he is still well in his prime. Who knows how long he has left, but he seems to be motivated not just by winning Super Bowls, but by becoming the best ever. To do that, the two time NFL MVP, and three time Super Bowl MVP is going to have to catch up with two of the greatest quarterbacks do ever do it.
Tom Brady and Joe Montana are considered the best quarterbacks to ever play the game. Montana was Brady’s idol in the 80s and 90s, and then Brady came into the league and became the idol of millions of kids around the world. In over two decades in the league Brady became the winningest player in the history of the NFL, all the while over taking his idol in the GOAT conversation. A lot of that success came in the second half of his career.
Long chase ahead for Mahomes
Both Montana and Brady both played for a long time. To win a lot, you have to play a lot, and both of these legendary QBs played for a long, long time. Brady played for 22 years and Montana played for 16 years. If Mahomes ends up playing for 16 years like Montana, last season would have marked the halfway point of his career.
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After year eight seasons, Joe Montana already had two Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, but his best years were still ahead of him. In year nine, Montana won his third Super Bowl. He followed that up with his first MVP season in 1988, and carried the Niners to a second straight Super Bowl title. It would be his fourth and final Super Bowl, but Montana wasn’t slowing down there. After winning back to back Lombardi Trophies in 1988 and 1989, he won his second MVP in 1990 before San Fran lost in the NFC Championship.
Brady’s trajectory was a bit different. He won three Super Bowls in his first five years with New England, but would go through a long drought without lifting the Lombardi Trophy. Him and the Pats were forced to wait a decade until they won it again, but during that time New England went to five conference Championships and two Super Bowls which they ended up losing. Brady’s eighth year was his first NFL MVP year. After year eight he had three rings and one MVP. All he did after that was play 14 more seasons, win four more Super Bowls and be named the NFL’s MVP two more times, in 2010 and 2017. When it was all said and done, he had a total of seven Super Bowls, five Super Bowl MVPs, three NFL MVPs, and his place alone in the Greatest of All Time conversation.