The rivalry between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen is shaping up to be one of the great matchups in NFL history, but the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback doesn't think fans should get carried away just yet.
For years fans have been blessed watching Tom Brady dominate the league, and his rivalry with Peyton Manning was one of the most anticipated of all-time. And recently the Buffalo Bills have formed a strong rivalry with the Chiefs, with both Allen and Mahomes throwing in classic games.
But Mahomes has played down their rivalry for now, saying that both quarterbacks need to win more until it can really be considered as a top face-off. Mahomes doesn't think they're in the same conversation as Panning and Brady's rivalry, just yet.
"When you play another great team, if you’re not going to execute at a high level, you lose those games," said Mahomes. "It’ll be good for us to learn from — everybody on the team — because that’s going to be a team if we want to get to the Super Bowl we’re probably going to have to play them again."
The Bills edged the Chiefs away at Arrowhead Stadium in the standout match of week six, with Allen's organisation moving to 5-1 while Mahomes had to settle for 4-2. It's very likely that they could meet in the play-offs again, somewhere they crossed paths last season.
The recent victory may have been a modest 24-20, but in the play-offs lasts season they competed in one of the great games, as the Chiefs won 42-36 after overtime. But despite all of these memorable clashes, Mahomes wants to distance the pair from Manning and Brady talk at the moment.
"We’re two guys that love to compete" Mahomes added. "We love to go out there and find a way to will our team to win, but (Tom) Brady and (Peyton) Manning, we still got a long way to go.
"Brady and Manning didn’t become [big rivals] until the latter part of their careers because they’d already won so much championships and MVPs and stuff like that. I think you can ask Josh [Allen] the same thing. We see that we could be there, but we still have a long way to go to put ourselves on that pedestal."
There's no doubt that the Bills are the most feared team in the NFL right now, especially after beating the Chiefs at Arrowhead. And after years of heading into the play-offs, this could finally be their year as everything is clicking into place.
But Allen was humble when speaking after their week six win, claiming that they're focused on the job in hand. "We are just trying to be playoff calibre," said Allen. "That is a standard that Coach [Sean] McDermott sets.
"Every game is big in the NFL. It doesn’t matter if you are playing a team that is 4-1 or 1-4. Any given Sunday, Monday or Thursday, any team can win if you are on the field. We are professional football players for a reason. Everybody is good. We have to turn our attention to the next week."
