Despite leading the Kansas City Chiefs to five Super Bowl appearances in the last six seasons, Dan Orlovsky doesn’t consider quarterback Patrick Mahomes the number one quarterback in the NFL. Orlovsky’s assessment goes against his colleague Jeremy Fowler’s latest quarterback rankings.
On Monday, a few hours before Garrett Wilson cemented his name as one of the highest-earning wide receivers, Orlovsky appeared on Get Up to talk about the latest QB poll.
From his point of view, Mahomes is no longer as dominant as he was a couple of years ago.
The gap has never been this ridiculously big… When it comes to Patrick [Mahomes], Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Joe Burrow. All three of those guys had better seasons than Patrick did.
Dan Orlovsky argued
His argument does have merit. The Chiefs played in the Super Bowl LIX, but Mahomes was nowhere near his best. He did not even make the Pro Bowl, finishing below 4000 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, and 11 picks.
In the meantime, Josh Allen, who finished second in the poll, won the league MVP award by contributing 42 overall touchdowns and only 6 INTs. Burrow’s inclusion at third raised a lot of eyebrows. He indeed secured the triple crown—460 completions, 4918 yards (70.6% completion rate), and 43 passing touchdowns—but he wasn’t even third in the MVP voting.
The quarterback who finished second in the race, Lamar Jackson, found himself at fourth in Fowler’s list. An entire section of football fans was unhappy when the Ravens’ star missed the chance to win his third MVP. He outperformed Allen in every category, throwing 4172 yards (league best 8.8 yards per throw), 45 overall touchdowns, and 915 yards on the ground from 139 carries.
If fans, for once, exclude the Chiefs’ Super Bowl run, in which, by the way, the Philadelphia Eagles nearly humiliated them when they took a 35-point unanswered lead. Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley contributed the bare minimum in the game, and the Eagles still won 40-22 because their MVP QB Jalen Hurts played the game of his life, completing 77% of his passes and scoring three overall touchdowns.
Hurts finished 10th in Fowler’s QB list. Players who finished ahead of him are Jayden Daniels, Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, and Jared Goff.
Jeremy Fowler sends a warning to Patrick Mahomes ahead of the 2025 season
The 29-year-old may have topped the charts, but Fowler added that there are a few areas he must work on to feature at number one next year. Fowler echoed a similar view to Orlovsky, but in a much broader way.
The veteran analyst pointed out that Mahomes is slowly losing his grip on the top spot, but it’s not his fault entirely. He lost several players last year for various reasons, and the offensive line (especially the left tackle) was one of their weakest links (finished 20th best in Pro Football Focus’ rankings).
Despite the shortcomings and an aging Travis Kelce on the team, one NFL executive told Fowler that Patrick Mahomes is still the best quarterback in the league.
He’s a one-man army. And no NFL coach wants to deal with him. A complete dawg. No one like him. Maybe Joe Burrow… but Burrow isn’t as dangerous as a player.
Losing the Super Bowl in New Orleans will weigh on Mahomes’ mind, but he is already looking past it and eagerly waiting to give his best in 2025.
It’s hard. When you lose a Super Bowl, I think there’s sometimes in those workouts, you may be a little tired, you have that extra added motivation to finish even harder, finish even stronger.
Patrick Mahomes said
The Chiefs travel all the way to Sao Paulo in Brazil for their opening fixture of the new season. They take on divisional rivals, the Los Angeles Chargers.
