Mahomes Vs. Hurts: Defining a New Era

Patrick Mahomes builds upon his legacy and cements a Kansas City dynasty after defeating the Philadelphia Eagles and winning Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, February 12, 2023.

Three years ago, sports journalists and fans alike marked Super Bowl LIV as the end of an era. Patrick Mahomes, then 24, had won his first super bowl, and the young Kansas City Chiefs looked destined to win multiple consecutive super bowl titles. Young QBs like Josh Allen, Deshaun Watson, and Lamar Jackson ran the league and seemed to be ushering in a new era of mobile gun-slinging quarterback play. However, two years have passed, and the expected Kansas City dynasty has not yet panned out. An aging Aaron Rodgers has won the past two N.F.L. M.V.P.s, and the past two super bowls have been won by a 43 year old Tom Brady and a 34 year old Matthew Stafford. Every year, the regular season narratives surrounding the N.F.L. focused on young talented Q.B.s like Joe Burrow or Mahomes, but every year, they failed to perform in the postseason and lost to more experienced quarterbacks when it mattered most. 

Three years after that first Mahomes Super Bowl, it finally feels like a safe place to say “End of an Era.” The cream of the crop in last year’s N.F.C. in the playoff race, all teams led by veteran quarterbacks, failed to perform. Last year’s super bowl champion L.A. Rams went a measly 5-12 and all-time great quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady failed to secure a winning record. On the flip side, every starting quarterback in the A.F.C. playoffs and in the conference championship across the league was 27 years old or younger. 

Super Bowl Preview
So where does that all leave us with this year’s super bowl? It leaves us with two young teams, The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, and two young quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, with a lot at stake in competing to bring home the most prized possession in all of football. Patrick Mahomes has been here before, twice in fact, but the last time didn’t go so well for him. Mahomes lost in a blowout to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 22 points in 2021, just one year after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. Despite his shortcomings in his last super bowl, Mahomes has still maintained his high standard of excellence, making the AFC championship in every single season he has started. Mahomes is already the consensus best player in the league, winning the MVP award the night before the Super Bowl and being the face of both the league and this new generation of NFL players. For Patrick Mahomes, this super bowl was about more than just proving he was great, everyone already knew that. For Mahomes, it was about shedding the title of  “future all-time great” and adopting the title “all-time great” at just 27 years old. 

For Hurts, the stakes were more tangible. The entire season, Hurts played to prove he deserved a place among the elite of the N.F.L. More importantly, though, Jalen Hurts played for an elite-level contract. Still playing on his rookie contract, a 4 year $6 million dollar deal, Hurts only had one year remaining on his contract after the 2022 season. An impressive performance in the super bowl and even more, a win, would guarantee Hurts to get a $40 million-plus contract in the offseason. A super bowl win would also be the cherry on top of Hurts’s breakout season. In 2021, people were questioning whether Jalen Hurts had what it took to be the Eagles franchise quarterback, so his jump to an MVP finalist in 2022 was impressive, to say the least. A super bowl win would be the perfect end to a season full of silencing the haters from Jalen Hurts. Hurts has put himself in a position to earn a hefty contract this offseason, but to be cemented as an elite QB might take more than this year’s super bowl. The idea of a “one season” wonder still looms over the head of Jalen Hurts even with a super bowl win. A Super Bowl win would put him into the history books, yet it wouldn’t necessarily make him an elite quarterback. There is no doubt he was an elite player this year, and a super bowl would only validate that, but we have seen super bowl winning quarterbacks fade into oblivion after reaching the coveted championship game. While the super bowl will do a lot for Hurts, it will be Hurts’s 2023 campaign that truly decides how he will be remembered. 

Super Bowl Recap
The hype going into this Super Bowl did not disappoint as the Kansas City Chiefs took down the Philadelphia Eagles in a 38-35 nailbiter. The game came down to a last-minute field goal that was made by Harrison Butker after a long drive down the field by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Most of the drama though came from earlier on that drive, when a controversial holding penalty was called on Eagles cornerback James Bradburry on a third down, which gave the Chiefs an opportunity to run the clock down and win the game. The call has received a lot of criticism both online and in sports media but EWS senior Ethan Glaich says, “the call put the refs in a tough spot” and he thought “it was the right call to make.”While some bitter Eagles fans put the loss on the officiating, it is hard to ignore that the Chiefs played a fantastic game throughout all four quarters. 

This game was about legacy for Mahomes and money for Hurts. Going into the game, it seemed like only one of the two quarterbacks would get what they wanted, and the other would be sent home with a super bowl loss. While Mahomes was the QB that took home the Lombardi and the Super Bowl MVP, Hurts still proved a lot in this game. With one of the best performances in a super bowl loss of all time, Hurts tied the record for both most points scored in a super bowl and record for most rushing touchdowns in a super bowl. Many argued that Hurts could have won the Super Bowl MVP even in a loss, something that has only been done once since 1971. Hurts’ performance in the super bowl and throughout the season seems enough to get him a big contract. NFL insider Adam Schefter recently said in an interview that “Hurts’ contract will be somewhere North of $45 Million” which would place Hurts among the five highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. Some Emery students believe this season did even more for Hurts as EWS senior Taylor Bazarsky says, “Hurts proved he can play with anybody.” There is a hesitancy to make that sort of claim at this point in Hurts’ career. Hurts is only 24 and have had one great season. When I hear people calling Hurts elite, it reminds me of Nick Foles, who was the last Eagles QB to make the super bowl. Foles had seemed to revitalize his career with a super bowl win, but only two years later had proved to be a one-season wonder, finding himself on the bench in Jacksonville. This season was impressive and surpassed all expectations, but if I were Eagles GM Howie Roseman, I would wait until Jalen Hurts’ contract expires after next season to give him that lucrative deal.

Patrick Mahomes, on the other hand, has proven more than enough to the NFL. With his third super bowl appearance and a second super bowl win in three years, it seems the narrative around Mahomes has changed. Mahomes becomes one of only 13 quarterbacks to win multiple super bowl titles, and he seems to just be getting started. When asked about Mahomes’s legacy, Glaich told me that “Mahomes is an all-time great” and both Glaich and Bazarsky agreed that the Chiefs are a dynasty at this point. The next question for Mahomes seems to be whether can he be the “greatest of all time.” This question will take a long long time to answer, but we can still predict what will happen. It is only natural that this conversation brews up comparisons between Tom Brady, the consensus #1 NFL player of all time, and Patrick Mahomes. Glaich says, “Right now, I see Mahomes as the best Quarterback of all time, he’s more talented, but Brady as the greatest quarterback.” When asked if he thought Mahomes could ever take that title of  “greatest” from Brady, Glaich thought about it for a while and told me, “I think it would take a lot, but if Mahomes plays for another fifteen years, he will probably pass Brady.” To me, Mahomes has it in him to be the greatest player ever, it is just a question of living up to his potential. Still, Mahomes still has a lot of time till he can beat Brady, who in his illustrious career won a record seven super bowl titles. What it will come down to me is longevity. Longevity is what made Tom Brady so great, as he played until he was 45. If Mahomes can rival this, still playing at a high level into his 40s and avoiding long-term injuries, I think he beats Brady purely off the talent and the super bowls will come to him naturally. Time will only tell for both Mahomes and Hurts’ respective legacies but it will be fun to watch how their careers turn out.