No team has won more than the Chiefs since Patrick Mahomes became a starter. Only Tom Brady has won more individually.
Fittingly, Mahomes' new goal is to accomplish something that neither Brady nor any one quarterback ever has. The 25-year-old has made all sorts of history just a few years into what's quickly shaping up to be a Hall of Fame career. He said just one feat has his attention as he prepares for the 2021 campaign: leading his team to a perfect season.
"The only record I have my eyes set on breaking, which would be new this year, is going 20-0," this past weekend at the first annual 15 and the Mahomies Aloha Golf Classic. "That's not really a record to be broken, I guess you would say. But I think 19-0 is the record right now, so being able to go 20-0, to be the first one to do that, that would be awesome."
Mahomes is slightly mistaken. The 1972 Dolphins, responsible for the league's lone perfect season, went 17-0. They also needed two starting QBs to pull it off. Three other teams, including Brady's 2007 Patriots squad that started out 18-0, had their pursuits of perfection fall short in the final game of the season. Four other teams from the 1920s went unbeaten but had at least one tie.
This year will be the NFL's first to incorporate 17 games in the regular season. Winning them all would then require three playoff victories for the 20-0 triumph. Mahomes' track record suggests his quest isn't crazy. The Chiefs went 16-2 with him under center last season. Their overall mark from the last three years is 43-10, which includes two Super Bowl appearances and a conference championship loss in overtime.
Brady, for what it's worth, has gone 41-15 during that same stretch with the Patriots and Buccaneers. He's also won two Super Bowls, to Mahomes' one, registering postseason wins over the Chiefs in both title runs. The G.O.A.T. wouldn't have a chance to trip up today's best player again until Super Bowl LVI. But as Brady can attest, any opponent on Kansas City's schedule could ultimately beat the reigning AFC champs.
As good as Mahomes and the Chiefs are, at least one team likely will.
