Patrick Mahomes wins best offensive player award, and it wasn’t even a debate
By Cody Rivera
Patrick Mahomes is the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, and there isn’t a single argument to be had.
This was something we probably could’ve predicted just a few games into the season.
Patrick Mahomes, the 23-year-old quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs who just concluded his first year as the team’s starter, has been named NFL Offensive Player of the Year. Anybody who watched even a lick of football this season knew it was going to happen.
In this department, there was no debate necessary. Mahomes wasn’t just the league’s best offensive player in 2018, he was miles ahead of everybody else.
In just one season of playing quarterback for the Chiefs, Mahomes became a folk hero of epic proportions in Kansas City. He absolutely obliterated the league, turning in one of the single greatest seasons for a quarterback in NFL history.
Mahomes finished second in the league in passing yards with 5,097, behind only Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But what really set him apart this year were his incredible 50 touchdown passes, the top mark in the league by a very, very long shot. No other quarterback in the NFL even broke 40 touchdowns.
The youngster out of Texas Tech is in elite company in that statistic, becoming only the third quarterback in history to crack the 50-touchdown mark. Tom Brady hit 50 for the New England Patriots in 2007, and Peyton Manning topped him with 55 touchdowns for the Denver Broncos in 2013.
Mahomes’ heroics led the Chiefs to the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC this year, and he came darn close to getting them to the Super Bowl before falling to the Patriots in overtime in the AFC Championship Game. Mahomes and the Chiefs scored an incredible 24 points against Bill Belichick’s defense in the fourth quarter of that game, certainly no easy feat.
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The scariest part of it all is that Mahomes is just getting started. At age 23, he still has his entire career ahead of him, and it’s hard telling how much hardware he will have racked up when it’s all said and done.