He was the only logical pick. Patrick Mahomes officially took home his second NFL MVP award yesterday for another outstanding regular season, further cementing his legacy as the best QB in the league today.
Can the Burrow vs. Mahomes debate finally be put to rest for at least the next six months? Please?
I like Joe Burrow and his game just as much as the next guy, but to still say that he is a better quarterback at this stage of his career than Patrick Mahomes is frankly ridiculous. Sure, he has more head-to-head wins than Mahomes (3-1) and almost beat him again in the AFC Championship game if Joseph Ossai didn’t drill Mahomes into next week with seconds to go, but that doesn’t make up for the accolades Mahomes has over Burrow.
With this latest MVP win, Mahomes now has 2 MVP awards in his first five years as a starter, he’s been to five straight AFC Championship games, he’s made 3 Super Bowls in 5 seasons, he’s thrown for over 5,000+ passing yards twice (both times resulting in an MVP win), and he’s turned the Chiefs into the premier superpower in the NFL.
Oh, and he’s now only the 10th player in NFL history to have won multiple MVP awards with the other nine being Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Jim Brown, Kurt Warner, Joe Montana, Brett Favre, Steve Young, and Johnny Unitas. Yeah, that’s some list to be on.
I know Joe Burrow has only had three seasons as the Bengals starter (with one of those being wiped out due to an ACL tear), but I highly doubt he’ll be able to match these stats in the next three years. Actually, I wholeheartedly doubt he’ll be able to achieve a third of what Mahomes has done, even if the Chiefs quarterback goes on to lose the Super Bowl this weekend to the Eagles.
I mean, he has to win 2 MVP awards, make the Super Bowl twice more, win the Super Bowl, throw for 5,000+ passing yards twice, and prove that the Bengals can consistently beat teams like the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, and Jaguars to just match Mahomes, let alone surpass him. That’s just asking too much of Burrow to accomplish in three years.
Looking back, the media really did go crazy during the runup to the AFC Championship game with the “Burrow is better than Mahomes” narrative. All of the people who were gushing over Mahomes and his transcendent talent completely ditched him (which should be no surprise for most of the media talkheads) for essentially the “new shiny toy in the store window” with Burrow and the Bengals, despite the fact that Burrow wasn’t even in the Top-3 MVP race this season.
Out of the all the MVP 1st place votes, Patrick Mahomes almost had a unanimous consensus with 48 votes, while Jalen Hurts (who came in 2nd) and Josh Allen (who came in 3rd) got a single 1st place vote a piece. Only once you reach 4th place in the voting does Joe Burrow’s name come up as he got some 2nd place and 3rd place votes, which should just tell you all you need to know about the Mahomes vs. Burrow debate.
Don’t get me wrong, Joe Burrow is a fantastic quarterback and will have a fantastic career. There’s no doubt about that.
But, as of right now, he’s no Patrick Mahomes and will be watching the great #15 face off against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl like the rest of us.
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