Patrick Mahomes is on pace to leave a legendary mark on the NFL. He has already won an MVP and Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs before the age of 25. With all this success, let’s take a peek at how much of it has come against winning teams.
People often bring up a quarterback’s record against winning teams to discredit a quarterback who is often otherwise successful. I see people use this argument to say players like Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford are not good and just put up empty stats.
Before we get into how well Mahomes has fared, I want to make clear that quarterback wins are a team statistic. Very few quarterbacks in the NFL have a winning record against teams who finished the season above .500 in the league. Even Aaron Rodgers has struggled against winning teams. Quarterbacks obviously have a big impact but it is a team game.
>>>Every NFL QB’s record against winning teams<<<
So what is Patrick Mahomes record against winning teams?
Since entering the NFL in 2017, Patrick Mahomes is 10-6 (.625) against teams that finished the season with a winning record.
Mahomes’ first start came in 2017, but his first win against a winning team came in week 1 of 2018 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Since then he has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL against winning teams.
In 2020, MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes was 5-0 against winning teams as the starting quarterback.
- Ravens (win)
- Bills (win)
- Buccaneers (win)
- Dolphins (win)
- Saints (win)
In 2019, Mahomes was 2-2 (.500) against winning teams as the starting quarterback. Matt Moore went 1-1 against winning teams in 2019 for the Chiefs when he filled in for an injured Mahomes.
- Ravens (win)
- Texans (loss)
- Titans (loss)
- Patriots(win)
In 2018, Mahomes was 3-4 (.428) against winning teams as the starting quarterback. Mahomes won the NFL MVP award for his amazing performance this season.
- Chargers (win)
- Steelers (win)
- Patriots (loss)
- Rams (loss)
- Ravens (win)
- Chargers (loss)
- Seahawks (loss)
Almost every quarterback in the NFL holds a losing record against winning teams. It only makes sense because those are the games you are most likely to lose every year. This has not been the case for Patrick Mahomes.
While Mahomes is an amazing talent, he benefited from being drafted into a good situation. He is paired with an amazing head coach in Andy Reid who spent a lot of time with him getting things right early on. Additionally, Mahomes wasn’t expected to play right away as he sat behind an established Alex Smith early on. This was crucial to his early success because like most QB’s he wasn’t ready right away.
Below is the first impression Chiefs star receiver had of Patrick Mahomes. Hill even said “I thought he was trash” after seeing him perform early on at training camp. He then described how Mahomes worked hard with the coaches to learn and improve.
What other quarterbacks have a winning record against winning teams?
There are currently 6 active NFL quarterbacks with winning records against winning teams.
- Ben Roethlisberger
- Jimmy Garoppolo
- Lamar Jackson
- Patrick Mahomes
- Russell Wilson
- Tom Brady
You can digest that information on your own. The only thing I want you to take away from this is that it is extremely rare to have a winning record against teams that finished the season with a winning record. That makes this that much more impressive for Mahomes and more so the Kansas City Chiefs.
