Poor Dolphins. Finally getting rid of Brady, but now a new roadblock in Chiefs’ Mahomes | Opinion
Miami hosts another Super Bowl, and Dolphins fans automatically tease themselves (or is it torture?) wondering when their team might be back in one. Dreaming is free, and folks keep insisting anything is possible, so have it.
But understand this: the Dolphins seem no closer today to their first Super Bowl appearance since the 1984 season and first victory since the 1972-73 quiniela.
They seem further away, in fact.
The Dolphins have simply swapped one gigantic AFC roadblock for another.
Tom Brady and the Patriots dynasty fades.
Patrick Mahomes and a Chiefs dynasty arises.
The wattage of brightness for Kansas City’s long-term future under Mahomes, the generational quarterback, can hardly be overstated. Anything said about this young guy that seems like hyperbole probably isn’t. And this is who will now be blocking Miami’s path to playing in a Super Bowl for all of this decade and beyond.
The pressure on the Dolphins regime to land a quarterback as good or to assemble a team to beat Mahomes has never been greater than it seems now as we witness the full coronation of Mahomes.
This isn’t discounting the long, bright future of another Dolphins AFC roadblock, dual-threat Lamar Jackson in Baltimore. Or perhaps Deshaun Watson in Houston? But Mahomes is the league’s new No. 1 QB and face of the NFL until somebody can take those things from him.
A league MVP at age 23. A champion and Super Bowl MVP at 24. The youngest ever to fashion that combination.
There is no ceiling for Mahomes, only infinite blue sky. He is a baby. He is just getting started.
Winning coach Andy Reid, 61, appeared in his standard Tommy Bahama shirt for Monday’s morning-after news conference at Miami’s downtown Hilton, posing with commissioner Roger Goodell and the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“Can I hold it?” asked Reid.
“Of course, you earned it,” said Goodell.
Reid recalled a scout saying of Mahomes, “This is the greatest player I’ve ever seen.” Reid had to doubt that, but after studying film, ”Then I’m like, this is like the greatest player I’ve ever seen!”
There was an epiphany, and instant conviction that the Chiefs had to draft Mahomes at all costs.
Do the Dolphins have such a belief? Someone out there who feels less like an answer than a guarantee? Is it Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth overall pick? Joe Burrow with a very costly a trade-up? Anybody?
“He sees the field,” says Reid of Mahomes. “Well, you say all quarterbacks do. No they don’t. His aptitude is ridiculous. You feed him plays and he gobbles those things up and makes ‘em look better than they did on paper. And then he’s a great leader. I got this young quarterback over here who makes life easy every day. Every day.”
Mahomes is now 5-0 in his young career in games he has trailed by double digits. Three of those came in this postseason, including in Sunday’s night’s 31-20 comeback over San Francisco in Super Bowl 54 at Hard Rock Stadium.
He had delivered Kansas City’s first Super Bowl win in 50 years. (Quick aside: The Chiefs play in Missouri, not Kansas, as Donald Trump erroneously tweeted in his congratulations).
The Chiefs’ quick-strike speed and Mahomes’ fingertips are a lethal combination. He has topped 30 points in all five career playoff games. He has 89 TD passes in 36 career games.
Shakira’s hips don’t lie, and neither do those numbers.
Sunday night he led three fourth-quarter scoring drives to rip out San Francisco’s heart.
“Mahomes in all his glory,” Reid called it.
With Mahomes at the fulcrum, K.C. confidence is blowing up.
“They gonna make a movie out of this,” said defensive tackle Chris Jones on Sunday night, as the confetti fell. “We’re going to come back for a repeat. We have to build a dynasty!”
Minnie Mouse kissed Mahomes’ cheek at Monday morning’s event and Mickey Mouse shook his hand, the blessing of Disney the latest indication Mahomes is now, unofficially but certifiably, America’s Quarterback. He wore a red T-shirt emblazoned with the word SHOWTIME. To continue long-term in K.C. he will become the NFL’s first $200 million man. A new contact topping $300 mill would not surprise.
How will young Mahomes top what he already has done?
“Win another one,” he said. “That’s it. That’s the goal. We want to keep this brotherhood going.”
Said Reid: “We’ve got a nice and long list of good stuff [to get better].”
The ascension of the NFL’s new king is foreboding as the Dolphins try (again) to hit the lottery on a difference-making quarterback.
By degrees Tom Brady at 42 is finally beginning to fade as Miami’s obstacle and nemesis-thorn.
And now,”in all his glory,” Patrick Mahomes arrives to take his place.
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 11:02 AM.
