The Patriots have to find a way to stop Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. And that’s far easier said than done.
The first-year starter, who played in only one game as a rookie, has a skillset unlike any the NFL has seen. His ability to throw from any arm angle and any body position (whether his feet are on the ground or not) requires the defense to defend the entire field. And Patriots defensive back Jason McCourty has never seen anything like it.
“Man, I can’t say I have and it’s amazing,” McCourty told reporters on Friday. “You turn the film on, you’ll see him throw with his left hand and you’ll see him roll out to the right and throw the ball back across the middle to the other side of the field and you’ll just be like, ‘How does he do it?’ So you think it’s a one-time occurrence and then you’ll watch another game and he’ll do the same thing and you watch another game and he does the same thing.
“He’s doing it at a high success rate so I think you really haven’t seen a guy -- I haven’t played against a guy that does this so many times and really doesn’t make mistakes while doing it and knows what he’s doing when he’s out on the run. You can tell that this isn’t something that came about this year. This is something that he was probably doing last year in practice with them, he was doing while he was in college. He’s a guy that’s really good at his craft.”
He’s better than really good at his craft. He’s one of the best ever at his craft, especially the way he can perform his craft.