The Patrick Mahomes legend seems to grow by the day. The MVP of Super Bowl LVII reflected on his and the Kansas City Chiefs' championship run on Monday morning -- the struggles and the eventual triumph -- while overcoming his own high ankle sprain to complete a tremendous second-half comeback against an excellent Philadelphia Eagles team.
"Taking in this whole year, and everything that's come with it, man, I just want to thank my teammates," he said. "It was a heck of a run."
Mahomes completed 21 of 27 passes for 182 yards and three TDs, also adding 44 rush yards -- 26 of which came on an improbable scramble prior to the two-minute warning to set up the game-winning field goal by Harrison Butker in the 38-35 victory.
Making it all the more impressive was that it came on the ankle Mahomes injured in the AFC Championship Game and aggravated late in the second quarter. It was the second big scramble Mahomes ripped off to set up a game winner, reminiscent of the penultimate play in the win over the Bengals, converting a third-and-4 in the conference title game to set up Butker's game-winner in that one.
The injury flared up when Eagles linebacker T.J. Edwards rolled over Mahomes' bad ankle, leaving his status for the second half up in the air.
"Once you have that high ankle sprain, when any little tweak like that happens, it just really magnifies it," Mahomes explained. "Coming into the game, I felt way better than I did in the Cincinnati game. … Luckily we were able to get into halftime and get some new tape on (the ankle) and some movement to try and get some mobility back."
As for his offseason, Mahomes plans to take "a few weeks off" and said he believes the ankle shouldn't hold him back. He plans to be ready for April workouts in his home state of Texas and in OTAs with the Chiefs. The only thing that will take a hit this offseason, Mahomes joked, would be his golf game.
"I'll for sure be ready for OTAs and everything like that," he said. "Obviously we will to continue to rehab, continue the treatment that we were doing, just give it some rest. I mean, I think the best thing for it is going to be rest."
He's earned it. But before long, the Chiefs and Mahomes will be back at it again to defend their second Super Bowl title in four years. For Mahomes, it has been a dream start to his career at age 27, starting to enter Tom Brady levels of achievement at such a young age -- and he has no designs on slowing down now.
"It's been an amazing run these last five, six years," Mahomes said, "and let's keep it rolling."
That was essentially a message to the rest of the NFL: These Chiefs don't plan on resting on their laurels anytime soon. As if Mahomes' second-half play -- on top of everything else he's achieved to this point -- wasn't scary enough for the league's other 31 teams, the idea of him coming back healthy with the core of the team likely intact in 2023 should be downright frightening.
