Getty Cheiefs QB Patrick Mahomes (left) and Bills QB Josh Allen (right).
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen knows that if he’s ever going to lead his team to a Super Bowl, it will likely be a path that goes through Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
After Mahomes wrapped up his second Super Bowl win in the first five years as a starter in the NFL with a win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Allen opened up about his team’s rivalry with Kansas City and Mahomes’ supremacy atop the AFC. The Bills quarterback said Mahomes has set a high standard for the conference that he’s now trying to match.
Josh Allen: ‘To Be the Best, You’ve Got to Beat the Best’
In an appearance on Kyle Brandt’s Basement, Allen was asked how he feels as a competitor watching Mahomes dominate the AFC for another year. The Chiefs quarterback not only won his second Super Bowl title this year, but also took home the MVP trophy for the second time.
Allen acknowledged that the Bills will need to be able to take down Mahomes and the Chiefs if they want to win a Super Bowl. The Bills have faced the Chiefs twice in the playoffs during Allen’s career, losing in the AFC Championship game in 2021 and in a heart-breaker in the divisional round last year.
“To be the best you’ve got to beat the best,” Allen said. “We didn’t get that opportunity this year in the playoffs, or we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities I guess you could say.”
Allen went on to praise Mahomes for his accomplishments through the early part of his career, saying the Bills will need to replicate what the Chiefs have done if they want to be able to get past them.
“If you look at him statistically and what he’s been able to do in his first four, five, six years in this league, it’s kind of unmatched by anybody,” Allen said. “They’re the mantra of what you want to be and how you need to do it because they’re just constantly in the AFC championship game. He’s been in three Super Bowls now… It’s a copycat league so you’ve got to find ways to be like them.”
While they are competitors on the field, Allen has also forged a friendship with Mahomes off the field. The two have spent time together and teamed up last year in a televised golf competition against Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
Bills Have Tried Matching Mahomes
The Bills have a complicated history with Mahomes, starting with their draft-day trade in 2017 that allowed the Chiefs to move up the board into Buffalo’s spot and take the Texas Tech quarterback. While the Bills passed on the opportunity to take Mahomes, they did take some of the draft capital from that trade to move up the following year and take Allen.
The Bills have continued to build a team based around beating Mahomes. After the Chiefs quarterback dismantled Buffalo’s defense in the 2021 AFC Championship game, the Bills used their first two draft picks on defensive ends.
See you tomorrow KC! ⏰🎉
At the draft, Bills general manager Brandon Beane said he wanted to replicate the way the Tampa Bay Buccaneers put pressure on Mahomes in the Super Bowl.
“Tampa did a heck of a job against Kansas City in that game and really did a nice job of making Mahomes move off his spot,” Beane said, via ESPN. “That was probably as big a difference as anything in the outcome of the game and we wanted to definitely get better there this offseason. We’ve added to the competition.”