Patrick Mahomes' Playoff Career Could Be Its Own MVP-Winning Season

During his relatively brief time with the Kansas City Chiefs, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has built up a legendary resume.

He's tripled the franchise's Lombardi Trophies, and more could be on the way, and lifted the club to national prominence. And, on a less tangible level, he's given Chiefs fans everywhere something to believe in after decades of failing to make it over the hump.

Eventually, numbers start to fail. You can only trot out so many figures, whether they're touchdowns, wins or anything else, before everything blurs together. But sometimes, the stats simply speak for themselves; after the Chiefs' AFC Championship win over the Ravens, we may have encountered one of those instances.

After that game, Mahomes has appeared in 17 postseason contests, which equates to one (modern) regular season. And if we considered that ersatz campaign for MVP candidacy, then the quarterback would be sitting pretty.

Let's crunch the numbers and break things down.

Mahomes Has Posted MVP Numbers in the Playoffs

At this point in his career, Mahomes has taken home two regular-season MVP crowns. One came at the end of the 2018 season, in which he threw for an incredible 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns, while the second arrived on the back of the 2022 campaign. The quarterback earned that title by throwing for 5,250 yards and 42 touchdowns.

Keep those totals in mind as a touchstone; that's what he did to earn his MVP titles.

Now, let's look at the playoffs.

The AFC Championship win over the Ravens was Mahomes' 17th playoff game, which equals to a regular season's worth of appearances. In those games, the Chiefs QB has completed 422 of 626 passes for 4,802 yards and 38 touchdowns. He's only thrown seven interceptions during that span.

And while those numbers may be slightly lower than his own MVP campaigns, No. 15's stats compare favorably to other award-winning seasons. Consider, Aaron Rodgers' 2021 campaign. During that season, the Packers QB completed 366 of 551 passes for 4,115 yards and 37 touchdowns.

Or how about Tom Brady's MVP 2017 season, which came directly before Mahomes first title? We were still working with a 16-game slate then, but the living legend completed 385 of 581 passes that year, throwing for 4,577 yards and 32 touchdowns.

Want to argue that there's more to MVP voting than numbers and that "value" sometimes means a smaller stat line can claim the crown? That's fair, but it would also work in Mahomes' favor. His 17 postseason games have come across six different campaigns, and the Chiefs have changed over that time. Gone are the days of deep bombs to Tyreek Hill; now, KC plays more of a ball-control game, knowing that Mahomes is the constant who can step up when his teammates need a boost.

But, even with those changes, No. 15 has kept on producing. A 14-3 record certainly counts for something, especially given the high-stakes of win-or-go-home stations. It's also worth noting that these are playoff games, meaning there's a higher degree of difficulty. There's no room for stat padding in the postseason, after all.

It's not ground-breaking to say that Mahomes is a talented player with an incredible body of work. None of that should be surprising at this point in his career. But with that, playing an MVP-caliber season's worth of playoff games within six years of taking over the starting job is still an impressive feat that helps underscore just how good he actually is.

And who knows? Maybe the second season of playoff games will start with a third Lombardi Trophy.