Patrick Mahomes’ Pro Bowl Exclusion Will Not Define Chiefs’ Season

For the first time in his NFL career, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been crowded out of the elite tier. The three-time Super Bowl Champion was not named to the initial 2024 Pro Bowl roster, an honor he has received every year since becoming Kansas City’s starter in 2018.

For all of Mahomes’ accolades and accomplishments, as well as the Chiefs’ current status as Super Bowl favorites, there are few arguments to justify a spot for him in the Pro Bowl. If he competed in the NFC, there would be a remote chance of him pulling rank on the likes of Jared Goff or Jayden Daniels. In the AFC, however, there is no debate. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are dominating the race for MVP and all three have made an unimpeachable Pro Bowl case. Mahomes has not.

Over the course of the season, Jackson and Allen have delivered virtuoso performances through spectacularly dynamic play. Jackson has thrown for 3,955 yards and 39 touchdowns while only throwing four interceptions; Allen has thrown for 3,731 yards and 28 touchdowns. Jackson has been a consistent menace in the rushing game while Allen has also proven more than capable of running when needed, particularly in several high-scoring games in the past month.

While these two have effortlessly blazed their teams’ trails to playoff berths, Burrow has been on his own mission, singlehandedly carrying an otherwise unremarkable Bengals team back into contention. Seemingly always in close games despite sustained explosive production, he has thrown for 4,641 yards and 42 touchdowns. He’s a staggering one-man show dragging Cincinnati, kicking and screaming, within one game of the postseason heading into Week 18.

On paper, Mahomes’ 2024 statistics aren’t necessarily foreign to this conversation. Closely mirroring Allen in passing, he has thrown for 3,928 yards, 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. But Allen has been a threat on the ground as well and had a number of heroic performances in important games. Mahomes has been more conservative, reflecting the Chiefs’ deliberate, grinding approach as a unit this season.

It has happened in the past that great players have sacrificed individual honors for the greater cause. Tom Brady had several seasons that were less productive on paper in the prime of his career, as the Patriots enjoyed elite defensive play that allowed the team to slow down opponents. Brady’s achievements in those seasons were as a general, not a playmaker. 

To say that Mahomes has completely adopted this piloting role would also be misguided. He remains a dynamic talent and the Chiefs are not afraid of creative play calls. His statistics are perfectly reasonable for an elite quarterback. His failure to receive a Pro Bowl invitation is more a result of timing. 

As Mahomes takes a step back in the interest of his team’s thorough and fundamentally sound play, it just so happens that three extremely talented quarterbacks in his conference have all had to step up. The AFC’s top trio of MVP candidates are perpetually on the front line, integral performers each and every week. It’s the role that Mahomes has assumed for the majority of his career. It’s the one he assumed when his entire team infamously failed him in his only Super Bowl defeat in 2021.

When doling out individual honors, the NFL looks for players who have made a singularly valuable contribution to their team, primarily in the form of statistics and victories. In the playoffs, however, the teams that most often succeed are the ones with multiple ways to win. It seems like an increasingly distinct possibility that Mahomes and Kansas City gets the last laugh.