One of the evergreen content generators for sports leagues during the offseason is the fruitless debate about who is the best at this and that and of what era. For the NFL, the great debate will always be who the greatest quarterback is. For most, the universal answer for the present day is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Even Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Josh Allen think so, and they have as much of a claim to that title as anybody else not named Mahomes. Evidently, when Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was told that his own quarterback said Mahomes was better, his response was, “Pat who?”.
And so you can see where this is going to go. What Chase said in support of his teammate was apparently in some way egregious. It’s not like the wide receiver doesn’t know who he is. The Bengals and Chiefs have already played four times in his two seasons, and the Chiefs came out on top last time in the AFC Championship game, going on to win the Super Bowl. He was simply expressing support for Burrow.
Apparently Mahomes didn’t care for it, Tweeting a picture of himself with his two Super Bowl rings—the Chiefs had just taken part in their ring ceremony—with the caption, “That’s Who”, with two ring emojis. And as you might imagine, tight end Travis Kelce didn’t care for it, either.
“Who doesn’t love some good locker room banter, man?”, he said on his New Heights podcast with his brother, Jason. “Shoutout to Ja’Marr Chase for holding it down for his QB, but don’t you ever disrespect Pat Mahomes now. If you want to talk your shit, talk your shit, pimp. Just better back it up”.
Well, if your shit is disrespectful and you can back it up, can you talk it? I’m a little confused on the rules here, but I can confidently say that none of this should matter in a reasonable world. Not that we live in one. If Chase were on the Chiefs and Mahomes said Burrow was the best quarterback, he would have said, “Joe who?”.
For those with no dog in the race, Mahomes is of course the better quarterback, at least up to this point. He’s the only active quarterback with more than one Super Bowl title, for starters, now that Tom Brady and his seven championships are gone and others finally have the chance to win one occasionally.
Over the past four seasons, Mahomes has thrown for 23,957 yards with 192 touchdowns to just 48 interceptions, a superb 4-to-1 ratio, oh, and he’s won 63 games to 16 losses. He has the best winning percentage of any active quarterback in the NFL.
Not that Burrow has anything to be ashamed about. He is easily in the conversation for one of the top five quarterbacks in the league, and surely many would put him at two. Perhaps some, if asked to pick a player to build a franchise around today, would choose him. But even if it’s a stupid thing to get upset about, yeah, Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league. As Burrow admitted, there’s no argument right now.
