Tom Brady makes a huge claim regarding Patrick Mahomes: "He's off to a hell of a start"
Tom Brady is arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. Either way, he's the most accomplished NFL player of all time. Hs seven Super Bowl rings eclipse the total for even the most successful franchises. Patrick Mahomes isn't on pace to break Brady's records yet, but he's already established himself as one of the best to ever do it.
Brady recognizes that, giving serious credit to the young quarterback who's already one of the best in the NFL, saying on the Let's Go! podcast with Larry Fitzgerald, Tom Brady, and Jim Gray:
"Patrick's obviously tremendous. 20,000 yards in a very short period of time, he's got a great opportunity in his career. Obviously, there's so much that goes into longevity, production statistics, you know, I would love to see him continue to thrive and challenge everything. Because that's what you should do when you have these amazing statistics. It's great to see people challenge those things."
Tom Brady knows he's raised the bar for future quarterbacks and is excited to see how they try to reach it:
"So you keep raising the bar, you know, so many people raise the bar for me, you know, I want to be able to raise the bar for other people and watch them maximize their opportunity and potential."
Mahomes has only played four full seasons but is on his way to being one of the best. As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star put it:
"So Patrick is one of a few that have amazing abilities to play in the game for a long time. How that manifests itself over a period of time is really up to him. So many of these things are so early to tell, you know, but he's off to a hell of a start. But I'll say that."
Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs took down the Buccaneers 41-31 on Sunday night.
Will Patrick Mahomes catch Tom Brady?
The odds that anyone is going to play quarterback at an elite level for 23 years again are pretty low. If there's a player in the NFL now that might do it, it is Mahomes, though. He's won one Super Bowl at the age of 27. If he were to have six more by the time he is Brady's age, he'll have to win six in a span of 18 years, which is improbable.
It's also improbable that he will even play that long, as his style of play is a bit more physical than Tom Brady's. There's a chance he might get banged up and not last until he's 45.