Skip Bayless came to one conclusion after watching the Kansas City Chiefs thrilling 32-29 AFC Championship Game win over the Buffalo Bills, Patrick Mahomes is boring.
The Chiefs are heading to their fifth Super Bowl in six years and are trying to do something that’s never been done before in Super Bowl history, a three-peat. If only they had an exciting quarterback to lead them during this run.
On the latest episode of The Skip Bayless Show, the former ESPN and FS1 host described Mahomes as if he’s closer to being Trent Dilfer than he is Tom Brady.
“Has anybody out there but me noticed that Patrick Mahomes is no longer Patrick Mahomes?” Bayless asked. “That super-duper star, who took the NFL by storm in his first five years by ‘Bombs away, everybody go long and I’ll throw it 80 yards for touchdown after touchdown. Storm! Storm! Storm!’ Patrick Ma-Home Run is what he used to be. That guy is gone, along with much of the splash and the flash.”
“This Mahomes, he plays shockingly boring football. This Mahomes has turned into the ultimate dink-and-dunk artist. Tell me I’m wrong! No NFL quarterback gets rid of the ball quicker than Patrick Mahomes. Instead of high rolling hundreds, trying to hit the casino jackpot the way he used to, this Mahomes just quietly and patiently plays the dollar slots. And it’s not like he’s 40 and conceding to age. Nope! Patrick Mahomes is playing like a grandpa at the ripe old age of 29.”
Great team, boring quarterback, but at least they have Taylor Swift on their side to give everyone someone interesting to talk about leading up to and during the Super Bowl.
Bayless isn’t entirely wrong. Patrick Mahomes, particularly the last two seasons, is different than the Mahomes we saw during his first few seasons as a starting quarterback. Part of that can be excused by having different personnel, part of it can be excused by claiming Mahomes spends the season trying to get his team ready for the playoffs and Super Bowl, more than he spends it trying to put up 50 points per game. Or you can subscribe to Skip’s theory and believe he just morphed into a boring, quiet, patient, cautious grandpa at 29 years old.
The problem with Skip’s gripe, however, is the fact that he used to complain about the more flashy Mahomes too. Two years ago, Bayless questioned Mahomes’ MVP candidacy by criticizing him for regularly making “spectacularly careless, dangerous throws” instead of making the safe play or throwing the ball away.
Bayless didn’t like the exciting Patrick Mahomes because he was too careless. Now he doesn’t like the patient Mahomes because he’s too boring. In reality, Bayless just doesn’t like the threat that Mahomes is too Tom Brady’s legacy.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com