The Mahomes Effect

Patrick Mahomes in his first season as a starting quarterback, became the 2nd QB in NFL History to throw 50 touchdowns and 5000 passing yards. Peyton Manning did it once in 2013. Brady, Brees, Marino, Rodgers have never done it. Mahomes is 1 for 1 on the 50/5000 club.

When you have a QB like this, you're not the only one going to make records.

Tyreek Hill set the Chiefs franchise record for yards in a season.

Travis Kelce set the NFL record for TE yards in a season (Kittle would break Kelce's record an hour later.)

And the Chiefs set a franchise record for points scored. It was also #1 in the NFL season. And #3 in history only behind the 2013 Broncos and 2007 Patriots.

At this point, Mahomes is the heavy favorite to win NFL MVP.

All of this is incredible, career-defining stuff. And then you remember it's his first season and you don't know what to say.

- - -

OH YEAH, and for the first time since I went to high school, the Chiefs are the #1 seed in the AFC. They will have one more game in Arrowhead. If they win that, they host the AFC Championship. They've never hosted the AFC Championship. (The last time the Chiefs went to that game was in Buffalo in 1993-94.)

The Chiefs finished 12-4. The Chargers are 12-4 and the Patriots are 11-5 with the tiebreaker over KC. Which means that for the Chiefs to take the #1 seed, ALL of these things needed to happen:

The Miami Miracle lateral win over the Pats
The Patriots losing to the Lions, Jaguars, Steelers and Titans (all 5 losses to non-playoff teams)
The Ravens beating the Chargers in week 16

The Broncos last second win over the Chargers in week 11

And 12 Wins by the Chiefs, including the 4th and 9 comeback over the Ravens, the opening win over the Chargers, the Mile High MNF left-handed pass win, and crushing the Raiders today.

That's crazy. The Chiefs needed ALL of that to happen. And all of it did.

So now the Chiefs won't play any road games. They will only have to play one of Texans/Patriots.

The Chargers and Bears also finished 12-4 and are playing wild-card weekend.

They have two weeks to study, get Eric Berry, Kendall Fuller (and maybe Sammy Watkins) healthy. We know anything can happen and the Chiefs carry a history of playoff failures. But then again, hopefully they learned something from the late-game collapse vs the Chargers.

And it's kind of nice to have to be wondering if the MVP can win the Super Bowl instead of wondering if good Alex Smith can show up in January.