NEW ORLEANS — On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Patrick Mahomes enters the Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks room around 6:30 a.m.
He pulls his headphones over his ears, his hoodie over the headphones.
A tablet and game plan rest on the table in front of him. On the tablet, Mahomes writes. And he writes. And he writes.
“The first two hours at the beginning of the day, no one really talks to him,” fellow Chiefs quarterback Chris Oladokun told chof360 Sports. “He’s locked in.”
The routine dates back years now. For about two hours to start Wednesday, he’ll copy over to his tablet each play call and each scouting note. One week he’ll write which nickel his opponent routinely brings on third down; another, he’ll scribble whether the team activates quarters coverage on third. Mahomes will detail short-yardage plans and goal-line tactics. On Thursday, with new wrinkles in the game plan, he’ll write it all again.
Part of the routine reflects the consistent obsession that great quarterbacks often demonstrate. A highly cerebral position demands pattern recognition and quick processing of myriad factors. In Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, Mahomes and his Philadelphia Eagles counterpart, Jalen Hurts, must not only recognize their cues in time to succeed individually but also to direct the cast of players surrounding them.
Another reason for the routine: Quarterbacking demands much more than arm strength and downfield passing. Production and efficiency matter. But they’re the results rather than the process to achieve the results. And perhaps they’re not the only results the quarterbacks contribute to the game.
After a season where Mahomes and Hurts’ passing production dropped, chof360 Sports set out to understand: Did the Chiefs and Eagles reach the Super Bowl with quarterbacks playing their position less effectively … or simply passing less, and at times less productively, just one of several measures by which to judge a quarterback?
Put another way: How much more than passing is the position of quarterback?
As defenses evolve and game plans chart different courses to victory, players, coaches and executives say there is more to the position than sheer yardage and production. Each quarterback has refocused the lens through which they judge their performance.
“It's all about winning at the end of the day — it doesn't matter how it happens,” Mahomes said. “When I was younger I wanted to make a big play happen the whole game and I obviously still want to do that, but whenever the defense is playing well or the offense (is) struggling a little bit, it’s about getting us back in rhythm, getting us back in tempo so the big plays come to us and we're not trying to force it.”
Hurts agrees. He’s become accustomed to a Philadelphia team that has called a pass play on a league-low 44.7% of first and second downs across the regular season, per Next Gen Stats. Has he taken jabs at head coach Nick Sirianni and media criticism at times? Sure. But the Eagles’ season is trending toward right where they want it.
“Ultimately it’s about everyone being on the same page, dialed in on whatever it’s going to take to get it done that week,” Hurts said. “Accepting that winning looks different in different seasons — in different games.”
What Mahomes and Hurts are doing that passing data won’t tell you
The Eagles didn’t produce a strong or even average passing game this season. They ranked dead last in passing attempts and bottom four in passing yards.
Hurts averaged just 193.5 passing yards per game in the regular season, his lowest in four years starting. Nineteen quarterbacks threw more than his 18 passing touchdowns.
And yet, en route to the NFC title, Hurts rushed for 14 touchdowns in the regular season and four in three playoff games. He escaped with a 40-yard ground touchdown on the first drive of a divisional round win over the Rams.
His official quarterback data doesn’t reflect any of that. But isn’t any way he produces a form of quarterbacking by definition, as he is a quarterback? Executing run-pass option plays and constantly threatening defenses to shade attention away from star back Saquon Barkley are part and parcel to how Hurts plays the position.
“As much as you can use that, it gives the ability to play essentially a man up on the the defense,” Eagles passing game coordinator and associate head coach Kevin Petri told chof360 Sports, “which is critical at this point, because they're so far ahead of us in certain areas defensively that that’s where we get that extra leg up at times.”
Mahomes, on the AFC side, passed more often and more productively than Hurts this season. But his 245.5 passing yards per game are also the lowest of Mahomes’ career, his 26 passing touchdowns tied with the fewest of his seven years as a starter — and nearly half his career-high 50 in 2018.
He’s throwing, but often more to manufacture a run game than to burn defenders deep. Mahomes targeted passes behind the line of scrimmage on a career-high 26.9% of his attempts this season, the second highest rate in the NFL.
He’s increasingly willing to scramble, rushing for two touchdowns in a 32-29 AFC championship win over the Buffalo Bills. Coaches and teammates say the mobility Mahomes leverages to move within the pocket as well as to escape it threatens as meaningfully as his arm talent.
“There are times it doesn’t look the way maybe you think it might,” Chiefs quarterbacks coach David Girardi told chof360 Sports. “And there's a lot of times these D-lines in this league are great. So being able to throw when your feet aren't necessarily set in the optimal position to throw.
“Using your legs when you need to.”
The Chiefs and Eagles dictate similar thresholds for their quarterbacks’ risk-taking, Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman preferring Hurts enact the tush push only to convert first downs and touchdowns. Mahomes picked his moments to move early in the season but flashed a willingness to scramble despite nursing an ankle injury in the Chiefs’ December win over the Houston Texans.
Facing second-and-8 with 6:34 to play in the first quarter, Mahomes spotted a lane upfield and raced 15 yards through the heart of Houston’s defense for the game’s first score. The Chiefs never lost their lead.
“I felt like I really set a tone for who he is from a toughness standpoint because that's when he had his ankle [injury],” Girardi said. “To get into the game early and show that he was still willing to run and use his legs and be a threat that way [shows] that competitiveness that he’s going to do whatever it takes.”
Which quarterbacking will achieve Super Bowl victory?
What will it take for Mahomes or Hurts to lift their team to victory on Sunday? Each quarterback will face arguably the best defensive front he’s seen this season.
The Eagles have transformed their defense under coordinator Vic Fangio to become the second-stingiest scoring defense at 17.8 points per game, also allowing the fourth-fewest passing yards per play at 6.22.
The Chiefs defense ranked fourth this season with 19.2 points allowed, though 13th with 6.54 passing yards per play. Their rushing defense was stouter.
Each quarterback should beware a pocket-disrupting defensive tackle, from Kansas City’s All-Pro Chris Jones to Eagles Pro Bowler Jalen Carter.
They’ll need to keep their eyes up and their legs ready. They’ll need to be ready to anticipate their targets and release before their protection is beat, at times changing routes based on leverage or calling in a motion. Eagles backup quarterback Tanner McKee calls them “10-level plays” for the degree of detail.
Hurts and Mahomes will need to — gasp — be game managers. Consider that a compliment.
“You can’t put the defense in bad spots and got to make sure you’re never too high, never too low,” Chiefs assistant quarterbacks coach Dan Williams told chof360 Sports. “Besides all the stuff you’ve got to do when the play starts, there’s before the play as well. So being a game manager is definitely a good thing.”
Managing the game and emerging with a win will supersede throwing for 300 yards or throwing for four touchdowns in each quarterback’s mind. Hurts and Mahomes’ impact, and specifically their quarterbacking impact, will extend beyond linear measurements.
Mahomes will aim to become the first quarterback of a three-time defending Super Bowl champion; Hurts will seek to win his first Lombardi Trophy after arguably outplaying Mahomes in a loss on the biggest stage two years ago.
Neither is opposed to lighting it up with his arm. But they won’t judge their impact on explosive plays against increasingly shell defenses alone, nor their athletic contributions on what their arm does alone.
Mahomes’ early-morning, write-much-but-talk-none sessions anticipate much more. He’s not memorizing for his arm’s sake. He’s memorizing because quarterbacking demands more.
“It's just about winning the football game and at the end of the day, that's what the ultimate goal is,” Mahomes said. “And so that's what I try to do, especially in this part of my career.
“Even though the stats might not be as flashy as they were in my first year, we've won a lot of football games and I’m proud of that.”
