Patrick Mahomes didn’t have his best game on Sunday, but when his team needed him to make plays, he made them. He led the Chiefs from a double-digit deficit to a double-digit win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, leading three scoring drives in the final six-plus minutes of action.
“He reminds me of John Elway,” former NFL defensive end Neil Smith said on The Zach Gelb Show. “I competed for nine years against the guy, and he just found ways to win. He had that will and desire. Regardless of how many times [we] sacked him, he still found a way – and that’s what they have in this kid. Kansas City is sitting in a pretty sweet spot right now with a great guy like that.”
Mahomes finished 26-of-42 for 286 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions Sunday and was named Super Bowl MVP. Andy Reid, meanwhile, finally ascended the NFL mountaintop after more than two decades in the league.
“Andy is very special to all those guys,” Smith said. “I hear nothing but great things from guys that come out of that locker room, how they really trust and believe in Andy Reid, and that’s what it takes. If you have a guy that really feels their guys and can touch that side of you as a person and then a player, then you can believe you me: you can take it to war with you. He’s gained that type of mentality, that attitude, toward each one of his players. When you do that and you hear things like that, you expect good things are going to come out at the end. I’m so happy for him.”
Smith, who won back-to-back Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos in the late-1990s, believes the Chiefs could be a dynasty in the making.
“They got it all in place to be a dynasty, and it starts with No. 15,” Smith said, referring to Mahomes. “If you keep playmakers around him, [they will be tough to beat]. Everybody in the West is trying to find players to match up to play along with this group. It’s not an easy division anymore. Now you’ve got the world champions in this division. . . . The second time is harder than you think it is because everybody is out to gun for you.”