It was nearly six years ago, before the three Lombardi Trophies, before the first MVP trophy, and Patrick Mahomes remembers it like it was yesterday.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ star quarterback was devastated after losing in overtime of a true quarterbacking-prize fight. Tom Brady had led the New England Patriots back from the dead—after an offsides penalty wiped out a game-ending interception in regulation—to a 37–31 win that put the greatest ever in position to win his sixth Super Bowl. The legend then went to the 23-year-old prodigy after the epic finish and delivered wise words in a back area of the stadium.
Keep doing what you’re doing, Brady told Mahomes.
Mahomes still considers it the best advice he's gotten as a pro.
“Just to keep doing what I’m doing,” Mahomes recounted on a practice field after a brisk mid-August practice during training camp in St. Joseph, Mo. “That first year, playing against Tom and losing that game, for him to say that—I’d never met him before—that was huge.”
The message was simple, but the power in what he told Mahomes rested in how Brady purposefully meant what he said, and how it confirmed so many things Mahomes spent his life learning.
Which brings us to the results of our annual quarterback poll of NFL executives, scouts and coaches (vote totals at bottom of story). And it should come as no surprise to anyone that, for the fifth consecutive year, Mahomes ran away with first place. The question we ask of all those folks is a little different—not who the best quarterbacks are now, but who the best will be at the end of the season—and the resounding answer we’ve gotten is a tribute to Mahomes’s greatness.
Mahomes was first on 78 of 85 ballots, and second on the remaining seven. It was the second consecutive year that every voter put him first or second, and the second straight year he received more than 90% of first-place votes. Which is to say, among a large swath of people who’d argue over whether the sky is blue, and on a question that’s generally divisive fodder for the mid-day talk shows, we found near unanimity.
And Mahomes has arrived here by following the advice Brady gave him.
He’s continued to hone all of his superpowers, including playing from the pocket and processing the autobahn of action unfolding before him. How he slows down, with his mind, something moving so fast. How he throws from all of those funky arm angles, knows when it’s time to put on the cape and make a wild play on the run or churn out a first down with his legs.
But all the same, it’s also staying true to who he is, and who he’s always been. That superpower is one that those around him bring up constantly. It’s a factor, too, in the football player that he’s become. In fact, in a lot of ways, it’s laid the foundation for what he’s accomplishing.
LaTroy Hawkins affectionately refers to Mahomes’s dad, Patrick, as “Big Pat.”
The two played together in the Minnesota Twins’ farm system in the early 1990s, and then for the big club in the mid-’90s, right around when Patrick II was born. They grew close enough then that Hawkins wound up being his buddy’s kid’s godfather. Like a lot of players’ kids, little Patrick was around the clubhouse a lot. But the way he came to conduct himself wasn’t the same as the others who had the special access that a player’s kid gets.
There was an athletic intuition there, yes—Hawkins remembers, when Big Pat was playing for the New York Mets, seeing a 5-year-old fielding major league fly balls during batting practice. Soon thereafter, a curiosity followed about the sport, and really all sports, that son had inherited from his dad.
“I remember him vividly being around, coming in the clubhouse with me and really understanding the dynamic at such a young age, that being in the clubhouse is not a right, it is a privilege,” Hawkins says. “[He was] not doing what other kids would do while they’re in the clubhouse—they didn’t do anything bad, but they weren’t laser-focused like him. When it was time to throw a bullpen, he wanted to see the bullpen. He wanted to go watch the other guys hit.
“Some of the other kids just wanted to sit in their dad’s locker and eat bubble gum and sunflower seeds. That wasn’t enough for him. He was there for a purpose. When you see where he is now, you see the purpose was his mind was set, that at some point he was going to be a professional athlete. He took it all in.”
The seeds were planted there for the pro athlete that Mahomes would become.
He got to see so much in those years, and remembered what most kids would about the players. That wound up sticking as much as any of the baseball lessons he’d take into becoming a top prospect in that sport, before he chose to play college football.
“I remember, even when I was young, there were guys that were really cool, people that I was like, These guys are great every single day,” Mahomes says. “Then, there were guys who were mean, not necessarily in a mean way to a kid, but you could tell that they were out there to do business and out there to perform and do their stuff. They weren’t necessarily the most friendly guys.
“I remember being like, If I get to that point, I’m going to be a guy that everybody can come up to.”
At the time, to a younger Mahomes, it just seemed like the right thing to do.
Over the years, though, through folks like Hawkins and other athletes he got to be around, he saw how being that sort of person could become a part of a player’s success. As Mahomes got older, he and Hawkins would talk about it—how to lead a locker room, and how the guys within it would do anything for someone who treated them right.
“I grew up in Tyler, Texas, in the country, so I can hang out with the country side of the locker room, just as well as the guys that are listening to rap music. That’s who I am. I like to be like that.”Patrick Mahomes
The kid also noticed how the guys who were most effective with it could relate to just about anyone, be it the shortstop from the urban area, the outfielder from the country, the pitcher from Latin America or the catcher from the Far East. In turn, a model was forming for what he wanted to become.
“I met a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds,” Mahomes says. “So I mesh well with everybody. I grew up in Tyler, Texas, in the country, so I can hang out with the country side of the locker room, just as well as the guys that are listening to rap music. That’s who I am. I like to be like that. I like to be somebody that anybody can talk to and know that they have a friend in the locker room.”
And years later, as Mahomes was mulling going pro after a monster 2016 season at Texas Tech, Hawkins sat down with his godson and gave him more real talk on how that needed to translate—that Hawkins had no doubt that the talent for Mahomes to make the move was there, but that he also had to be ready to lead a locker room full of guys with wives and children, and livelihoods at stake on a daily basis.
It meant not just being able to connect with anyone, but having to do it with everyone.
“When you’re leading men, you have to make sure you’re leading the guy at the bottom,” Hawkins says. “You’re leading from the No. 55 guy on the roster all the way up to the No. 2 guy on the roster. You can’t leave anybody out. You have to lead by example. Every single day, 365/24/7. You have to. Get to know your people. Find out what their wives’ names are, their kids’. You have to know your people. I’m glad that he understood that.”
But even Hawkins didn’t know exactly how far Mahomes would take it.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy started a tradition in the quarterbacks room when he was the position coach two years ago, where, at 7:30 a.m. Saturdays, he’d put high school football results up on the screen. It was Mahomes’s idea to pit state vs. state, with scores from Nagy’s, assistant David Girardi’s and backup QB Chad Henne’s alma maters in Pennsylvania, against Mahomes’s and third-stringer Shane Buechele’s schools in Texas on the board.
A few weeks in, Nagy was at his oldest son Brayden’s game, in the bleachers, and his phone started buzzing. It was Mahomes, who asked how he could log on to a website that showed the games. Nagy gave Mahomes his password. The next morning, as Mahomes caught up with Nagy, it was clearly he’d actually watched.
A week or two after that, Mahomes asked where Brayden, then a prep quarterback, was playing the following Friday. Nagy told him, and didn’t think Mahomes would actually show up. Yet, that Friday, with some help from the high school’s athletic director, there Mahomes was, standing in the end zone as the game got going, with his wife, Brittany. And last year, he showed up at a few of Nagy’s younger son Tate’s games.
“Whatever the highest level of athlete is, he’s at the top of that level,” Nagy says, “and he’s still doing this.”
Stories such as that aren’t uncommon, even as the demands on Mahomes’s time have increased.
There’s the pizza place Il Lazzarone in St. Joseph, near the Chiefs’ training camp, about an hour North of Kansas City, where Mahomes brings his offensive linemen, and has built real relationships with the staff. There were those screaming for him every day on the practice field to come over, and how he tries to give everyone he meets a good experience.
Can it be exhausting? Sure.
“But that’s relative to me,” he says. “I’d rather be doing this than anything else in the world. I’m going to make a kid’s day. I was that kid. I was going around trying to get autographs. I still have autographed baseballs from Barry Bonds and a bunch of other guys my dad played with. I was a kid asking for that stuff growing up, so I’m going to try and go out there and sign as many as possible and make someone’s day and put a smile on their face.”
And all of it carries right over to the locker room, too.
Where just about every starting quarterback gets Christmas presents for their starting offensive linemen, Mahomes will get one for the guy on the practice squad, too, bringing to life the point that Hawkins once made to him about making the last player on the roster feel like he’s as important as the starting left tackle.
“He was more generous with the ‘lesser’ parts of the roster than anyone I’ve ever seen before,” says Mitchell Schwartz, Kansas City’s right tackle during Mahomes’s first four NFL seasons. “It always felt like he went above and beyond, especially for the bottom part of the roster that wouldn’t typically see that kind of generosity. That’s not something he has to do … But he thought enough to say, Everyone’s part of the team, and everyone deserves something. ..
“It’s a human game. We have different moods and attitudes. You get the best from guys when you give as selflessly as he does. I think you can look back at last year as a good example. If the Chiefs didn’t lead the league in drops, I don’t know who did—a lot of high-profile ones and ones you could argue cost them games. There wasn’t a time he threw anyone under the bus. There wasn’t a time he pointed fingers.”
Just the same, when the line fell apart at the end of the 2020 season, due to a litany of injuries, and Mahomes had to carry the team back to the Super Bowl, only to get the you-know-what beaten out of him against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he never once raised the circumstances he faced.
That, of course, doesn’t mean he won’t correct things that are wrong. He’s so good at it, in fact, that Andy Reid’s given him the first two weeks of the offseason program every year to take the offensive guys to Texas and run his own passing camp since they’re not allowed to throw at the Chiefs’ facility by NFL rule. And one reason the players always listen when he’s hard on them is because they know he has their back.
"I think just knowing everyone, you build this trust,” Mahomes says. “I always say that what makes us so great is that it’s a family atmosphere in our locker room. It truly is a family. I know that’s what it’s like in a lot of locker rooms, but it’s different here. We truly care about each other. It’s not just me with the offense and Nick Bolton with the defense. It’s the whole entire team. We all strive for each other and want everybody to be great and everybody to have success and get paid. Having that mentality is what makes us so great."
This superpower that Mahomes has comes out, both for everyone to see, and for very few, at different times.
It showed up in how he still could easily pull off being the guy from East Texas with the case of Coors Light in the golf cart, as he played with Bills quarterback Josh Allen on “The Match” broadcast a couple of springs ago. It also appears in how he’ll ask his coaches about their kids’ games, asking for each by name, and knowing what sport they’re playing in whatever season it is. It’s there in opening his home in Texas to teammates for that spring camp, and also for the kids who drove an hour to watch him practice.
Things keep changing around him, but he doesn’t change much.
“He handles that well,” Reid says. “He makes everybody around him feel good, but at the same time challenges them. That’s the balance. That’s a tough balance, where you’re not too much front office. He has a feel for that. So the guys know he’s all in for them. … I think they’d tell you he’s a great guy, great player, great teammate."
“He’s kind of like … the perfect teammate,” Schwartz says.
So, sometimes, he pushes. Other times, he pulls back.
And he’s always toughest on himself.
This offseason, that’s meant trying to lead an offense that can, again, be more dangerous down the field, which he thinks will open things up underneath for Travis Kelce, Rashee Rice and Noah Gray—“If [we’re] more efficient offensively,” he says, “it will make it easier on our defense so they don’t have to play perfect every game.” It’s also meant personally continuing to learn to play within the context of the offense with his reads and footwork.
“We have great coaches that keep me accountable,” he continues. “They easily could let off the gas of coaching me. But having guys like coach Reid and coach Nagy and coach Girardi, they stay on top of me.”
“If I look back on my career and say I didn’t give everything I had, then I would regret that. I know you want to win a certain amount of Super Bowls. You want to catch Tom [Brady]. At the end of the day, if I don’t win another Super Bowl, if I say I worked as hard as I could every single day, I’ll be happy.”Patrick Mahomes
Then, there’s the bigger-picture stuff that keeps Mahomes going.
Just as he saw careers thrive when he was a kid, he has also seen them end unfulfilled, too. He has seen potential go realized and unrealized. As a result, he’s pledged to himself to always chase the margins that, at that level of the sport, make a difference.
“I just don’t want to have any regrets,” he says. “I know winning three Super Bowls [would make] an amazing career, but I understand how good our team is. I understand the atmosphere that I’m in. I have one of the best coaches of all-time. I have one of the best players of all-time in Travis [Kelce] and played with a lot of other great players, too. I know how blessed I am.
“If I look back on my career and say I didn’t give everything I had, then I would regret that. I know you want to win a certain amount of Super Bowls. You want to catch Tom [Brady]. At the end of the day, if I don’t win another Super Bowl, if I say I worked as hard as I could every single day, I’ll be happy.”
But he knows what will make him happier. He has a pretty good idea, at this point, of how to get there, too. And what, and just as important who, it’ll take to do it.
Which is why he’ll keep following the advice Brady gave him—and keep doing what he’s been doing.
QB poll results: How NFL evaluators voted
So without further ado, let’s dive into our quarterback poll. As has been the case annually, I do this with a pretty specific blueprint—asking NFL folks who evaluate quarterbacks (head coaches, GMs, assistant GMs, personnel directors, execs, offensive coordinators, QB coaches) for their top-five lists. What I’m looking for, again, is who these guys think will be the top-five quarterbacks at the end of the season.
Also, I send it out after the final cuts so everyone has the full context of the NFL offseason to make their evaluation. It’s a scramble, as you might imagine, putting it together.
So here is the 2024 list, after receiving 85 ballots. I use a point system that awards five points for a first-place vote, four points for a second-place vote, etc. And we have all 32 teams represented among the 85 voters, giving us a nice cross-section of folks from across the NFL.
1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
• 418 points
• 78 first-place votes
• Appeared on all 85 ballots
• Last year: First place
As automatic as this seems to be, it’s still staggering the stranglehold that Mahomes has had on the top spot, really, since he became a starting quarterback. This is the seventh time I’ve run this poll. The first time was in 2015, when Mahomes was a college sophomore. The second time was going into his MVP season of ’18. The other five, he’s finished first. And even with 91.7% of the first-place votes, this was the second-most resounding victory he’s had in the poll (he was over 92% in ’20). He’s not Brady yet, but he’s definitely on that sort of trajectory.
2. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals
• 218.5 points
• Three first-place votes
• Appeared on 67 ballots
• Last year: Second place
The respect for Burrow is clear in that the only real argument against him I got from evaluators was with “injury permitting” caveats. He came in fifth in 2022 in the poll, and is now second for the second consecutive year, albeit not as solid a second as he was a year ago. What did surprise me a little was that Burrow was left off 18 ballots after, a year ago, making it on 78 of 80 ballots.
3. Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
• 181.5 points
• Two first-place votes
• Appeared on 64 ballots
• Last year: Third place
Don’t count NFL evaluators among those who doubt the Bills’ superstar—he finished in the top three for the fourth consecutive year, and joined Mahomes and Burrow as the only two to get multiple first-place votes. The biggest concern with Allen is that, eventually, his physical style of play will catch up to him. But at least in the short term, the prevailing belief is that he could actually benefit from Stefon Diggs’s departure, and lift a young nucleus of skill guys such as Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid. “It’s a big year to find out a lot about him without Diggs and [Gabe] Davis,” texted one AFC OC. “I’m betting on him. He’s a stud.”
4. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens
• 172 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on 69 ballots
• Last year: Seventh place
Jackson’s placement on this list has been a little confounding for me the past couple of years. He finished third in 2020, coming off his MVP season of ’19. Then, he finished seventh, eighth and seventh in the three years to follow. So what changed this time around? Well, it’d be tough to rank the reigning MVP that low. But I’d also say his evolution as a passer convinced top evaluators to look at him a little differently—and move him back into the upper echelon (points-wise, he’s right there with Allen and Burrow).
5. C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans
• 108 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on 51 ballots
• Last year: N/A
I was curious where Stroud would land—and it’s pretty clear the league saw his 2023 season as no fluke. “He’s fearless and can sling it,” said one coordinator. “He’ll be a problem in the AFC for a long time.” Adding Diggs to an offense that has Laremy Tunsil anchoring the line and Tank Dell, Nico Collins and Dalton Schultz to throw to won’t hurt, either. Remember, Mahomes and Jackson won MVPs as NFL sophomores. I wouldn’t rule out a similar second season for the former Ohio State star. And the fact that he’s the highest-rated second-year player in the history of this poll seems to prove the league is with me on that.
6. Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams
• 55 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on 27 ballots
• Last year: Ninth place
One NFC exec called it like this on Stafford, via text: “Oddly underrated for a former No. 1 pick, Super Bowl winner, and second-highest earner in NFL history.” And it’s true that most NFL folks loved Stafford long before the general public caught on to how good he is. There’s also a healthy bit of respect paid for how he came back from the elbow injury of 2022 and guided a team saddled with $75 million in dead cap charges to the playoffs last year.
7. Aaron Rodgers, New York Jets
• 25.5 points
• One first-place vote
• Appeared on 15 ballots
• Last year: Fifth place
Rodgers didn’t fall off the map altogether—this is more of a nod to the unknown as anything else. Rodgers is now three years removed from the back-to-back MVPs in 2020 and
’21. He hasn’t finished a game since January ’23. I don’t think anyone would be stunned if the Jets got an MVP-caliber year from him. It’s just harder to count on it as he plays the first season of his 40s. And that’s reflected by the fact that while he slid just two spots back off last year, he went from appearing on 41 ballots to 15 this year.
8. Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers
• 19 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on all 11 ballots
• Last year: Fourth place
This was a steep dropoff—Herbert was fourth in 2022 and ’23, and last year appeared on nearly five times as many ballots as he did this year. Why? Well, he is dealing with a foot injury that cost him almost all of training camp, and the Chargers have rebooted the roster in many ways, with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams among those gone. As I see it, Jim Harbaugh is very likely to get more from Herbert than anyone else has by asking less of him, in taking the pressure off with a dominant run game and a well-rounded team. But, clearly, the league doesn’t see it happening as fast as it did with Alex Smith in San Francisco 13 years ago.
9. Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers
• 18.5 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on 11 ballots
• Last year: N/A
Love received votes for the first time this year, which shows how the NFL sees the finish to his first year as the Packers’ starter—that progress he made at the end of the year, as coaches and scouts saw it, was real. One fun detail from the pool of 11 voters who put Love’s name down? Five of them were guys with final say personnel-wise in their organizations. So decision-makers like Love.
10. Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers
• 12 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on seven ballots
• Last year: T-13th place
Everyone thinks Purdy will play well. The larger question seems to be how much credit you give the Niners’ third-year quarterback for it. That seven guys saw Purdy as one of the five best players at the position is a pretty nice step considering the doubts have hovered as recently as last summer.
11. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
• 11 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on six ballots
• Last year: T-10th place
This is actually the best showing by Prescott since 2020—and I do sense some sympathy for the situation the Cowboys’ ninth-year quarterback is in, both in how much Dallas leans on him and what he has at the skill spots outside of CeeDee Lamb. “Dak gets a lot of heat,” one senior offensive assistant said. “The guy gets the least help in terms of scheme in the league, and he’s asked to do a lot.”
12. Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins
• 10 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on four ballots
• Last year: N/A
I was surprised with the amount of heat Tagovailoa got here, by far the most I’ve seen doing this poll. It’s, in a way, the inverse of Prescott—everyone knows how much Tagovailoa has around him. But it’s also what he did last year, coming off a really tough 2022.
13. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
• 8 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on four ballots
• Last year: Sixth place
Hurts’s fall was precipitous from sixth place last year (he appeared on 39 ballots and had 90 points). That reflects the perception around him changing and, maybe, some suspicion that the departed play-caller Shane Steichen was able to play smoke and mirrors with his shortcomings.
T-14. Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars
• 5 points
• One first-place vote
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: 8th place
Last year’s futures bet in this poll—he finished eighth coming off his breakthrough 2022 season—has leveled off, and fewer folks are seeing him as the generational prospect he was regarded as over three years at Clemson. The Jaguars, for their part, clearly still believe after giving him a five-year, $275 million extension this offseason.
T-14. Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears
• 5 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on three ballots
• Last year: N/A
Boom! The No. 1 pick in the NFL draft makes the list, and more than just three guys considered putting him on ballots. It’s a reflection that Williams was seen as the sort of quarterback prospect that doesn’t come around every year. It’s also a nod to how aggressively the Bears have onboarded him, going back to installing the offense with him before the draft and naming him the starter in May. He’s expected to play well in Year 1 for a franchise that hasn’t had a real long-term franchise quarterback … maybe ever.
16. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
• 4 points
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on two ballots
• Last year: N/A
I, for one, was surprised there weren’t more Goff fans out there. But I think this isn’t so much that coaches and scouts don’t like him, as it is that most see him outside the top tier of players at the position.
T-18. Bo Nix, Denver Broncos
• 1 point
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: N/A
Like Williams, Nix is another rookie more people considered putting on their lists. And, again, like Williams, it’s because Nix is expected to play well after starting 61 games in college and will be given the keys to Sean Payton’s offense.
T-18. Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks
• 1 point
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: N/A
I love that Smith got a nod here. I think he’s similar to Goff in that most coaches and scouts like him, but see him outside the elite category.
T-18. Deshaun Watson, Cleveland Browns
• 1 point
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: N/A
Watson finished fourth in 2020—just ahead of Rodgers, Drew Brees and Brady. And the vote he got was the first one he’s received in three years. It’s fair to say a lot of folks have abandoned hope with the third-year Brown, who has a new staff of offensive coaches in 2024.
T-18. Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers
• 1 point
• 0 first-place votes
• Appeared on one ballot
• Last year: N/A
The vote for Young was really the only mention I got on him from the 85 voters. It would be fun to see this sort of leap from a good prospect who had a really rough rookie year.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Coaches, GMs and Execs Vote on the Best QBs at the End of 2024.
