MaddenIsTerrible said:So Mahomes has nothing to do with it? Sure he walked into a good situation but you think other QBs would have the same success?
Not nothing, but many other quarterbacks would have had the same success. Especially Allen. Mahomes does some things Allen can't, but Allen has a consistency I would argue Mahomes doesn't have. The Chiefs' roster and coaching are so good that even when Chad Henne has to come in for a drive in relief of an injured Mahomes during the 2022 Divisional Playoff, what does he do? He leads a touchdown drive ending in a completion to Travis Kelce, putting the Chiefs up 17-7 over the Jaguars.
I can't think of a comparison for Mahomes in the history of the NFL, because there's never been a time I've known of where a franchise had such a dominant roster while the cupboards were bare in the same conference, with few exceptions. Tom Brady went 2-0 against Mahomes in the post-season with two different rosters, so there's a quick indicator of separation between Mahomes and the greats. Joe Montana had Jerry Rice and Roger Craig, and most importantly Bill Walsh. But Montana had an annual gauntlet in the post-season, as well as a post-season nemesis in the Giants. If not for his UCL injury, Montana probably goes on to threepeat with a Lombardi Trophy to cap his 1990 season, and he probably continues to dominate with the 49ers, while Young eventually would have moved on elsewhere, and may never have become the Steve Young we know him to be.
Many quarterbacks could have had great success in Kansas City, and some, perhaps greater success than Mahomes. But we don't get to see those permutations, which I think is probably the most miserable thing about all-time greats debates: There are so many careers that turned on a single moment: An injury, personnel decisions, a turnover, or an improbable defensive collapse. With Mahomes, everything just always seems to work out, year after year. When he was struggling against the 49ers last year, Greenlaw suffered a freak achilles tendon rupture, and after that Travis Kelce was open on key plays. Just break after break after break.
But for me, the reason Smith didn't have the success Mahomes had was because Reid absolutely refused to fire Bob Sutton, and again and again the Chiefs' defense underperformed in critical moments during the post-season. Then Sutton's defense gacked away the game against Brady's Patriots, and Reid had finally had enough.
