Ex-Patriots star writes off Patrick Mahomes’ athleticism - “Have you seen Myles Garrett playing basketball?”
Patrick Mahomes has enjoyed turning heads with his NFL passes for the last half-decade. This has led the quarterback to having a reputation as a freakish athlete. However, one NFL analyst claims to be more interested in another brand of "freakish athleticism."
Speaking on Good Morning Football, Jason McCourty revealed a stronger interest in freakish defensive linemen over the quarterback. Here's how he put it when asked if Patrick Mahomes was the biggest freak in the NFL:
"No, no. [When people] discuss what makes someone the most athletic, there's somebody where you just line up multiple sports and 'Alright, he's good at golf. He can hit a baseball, you can do all these different things.'"
He continued, naming Aaron Donald, Dexter Lawrence, and Myles Garrett as three players above Mahomes:
"Give me a freakish athlete. I want to see a guy like Aaron Donald at 300 pounds with abs. And I want to see guys like Dexter Lawrence is big guy, 300 plus pounds doing stuff... Have you seen Myles Garrett playing basketball, doing windmill dunks, shooting threes, the big guys moving like little guys. That is freakish athleticism."
Patrick Mahomes is the most freakish athlete in the NFL.
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Aaron Donald smarting from un-Mahomesian 2022 season
The Los Angeles Rams' star pass rusher is undoubtedly in better shape than 99 per cent of the fans who watch him and the analysts who pick him apart. However, in a 2022 comparison with Patrick Mahomes, one player had an on-brand year and the other had the worst year of their career.
Heading into 2022, Aaron Donald had gone five straight years with at least 10 sacks. In 2022, however, the pass rusher earned just five, one-fourth of what he earned in 2018. Of course, expecting a pass rusher to get 20 sacks or more each year is quite unrealistic.
2022 regular season:
Chris Jones:
15.5 sacks
46 Pressures
17 TFL
29 QB Hits
16 Hurries
13 QB Knockdowns
Aaron Donald:
5 sacks
16 pressures
10 TFL
11 QB Hits
5 Hurries
6 QB Knockdowns twitter.com/pff/status/166…
The reason for the drop in production was due to availability. The pass rusher played in just 11 of 17 games last season.
Meanwhile, Mahomes experienced the second-most productive season of his career, earning 41 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. From a yardage perspective, 2022 was the best year of his career by more than 150 yards, earning 5,250 yards. He also had the best completion percentage of his career at 67.1 per cent. Not to mention, he also won an MVP and a Super Bowl.
If any of the above quotes are used, please credit Good Morning Football and H/T Sportskeeda.