Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes hasn’t looked like himself this season.
Through seven games, Mahomes has thrown nine interceptions, which combined with two lost fumbles puts him on pace to break his single-season high in total turnovers (17), per Pro Football Reference. While his completion percentage (67.5%) is higher than his career average (66.2%), that has to do in large part with a career-low yards per pass attempt (7.6), which has caused the down-the-field, miraculous throws we’re accustomed to seeing from Mahomes happen at a much less frequent occurrence this season.
While Mahomes’ play is only a piece of the pie that’s led to Kansas City’s 3-4 start to the season, he’s the face of the franchise, but more importantly, the poster boy for some ugly-looking plays this season.
#Titans punch the football out on a Patrick Mahomes scramble and recover the football with a little under two minutes left in the first half.
The latest Chiefs news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Chiefs newsletter here!
In Week 7’s blowout loss to the Tennessee Titans, Mahomes completed 20 of 35 passes for 201 yards with one interception, and two fumbles with one resulting in a turnover, per ESPN. In the fourth quarter, Mahomes took a nasty hit that had him in the medical tent going through concussion protocol, and although he did clear protocol he remained on the sideline for the remainder of the game.
Mahomes’ performance in Kansas City’s fourth loss of the season has the NFL landscape scratching their heads trying to figure out what’s going on with the league’s star quarterback. Others, however, are ready for Kansas City to make a change, sparking a petition being created.
Petition Created to Bench Patrick Mahomes
A fan named Ian Haywood created a petition on Change.org demanding that the Chiefs bench Mahomes. Here’s the explanation for the petition:
Through their first 7 games of this season Mahomes has 2093 passing yards and 18 passing touchdowns which isn’t bad, however his 9 interceptions are making him an average quarterback. How can you justify paying an average quarterback $500 million? He is not only stealing money from the Kansas City Chiefs organization, or stealing playing time from the greatest quarterback in the league; Chad Henne, but he is also stealing the dignity from the good people of Kansas City. Just the other week two Chiefs superfans were banned from Arrowhead Stadium for having a heated brawl in the stadium. We have to end this madness.
“What is the solution?” You might ask. The only solution that I see fit is to bench Patrick Mahomes. It’s time to look to the future: Chad Henne. He is more than able and can bring this team back to glory.
As of the morning of Monday, October 24, the petition had 13 of the required goal of 100 signatures.
The petition was likely made to poke fun at Mahomes. No one in their right mind should believe Chad Henne is a better option at quarterback than Mahomes, who is a former league MVP, Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl MVP, and has collected all of those accolades before the age of 25. Nevertheless, the petition highlights the growing awareness of Mahomes’ poor play this season.
Mahomes Holds Himself Accountable
Mahomes met with the media following Kansas City’s Week 7 loss and held himself accountable for the team’s poor offensive outing, which resulted in 334 yards of total offense, three turnovers, and three points.
“They just made plays,” Mahomes said. “They played the same coverages they played against the Bills. We just didn’t execute, or I didn’t execute, really. There were open guys, you could see on the tablet. There were pockets that were clean that I scrambled from. I have to be better in order to lead this offense to score more points.”
Mahomes also acknowledged that he needs to have more trust in the playmakers around him.
“At the end of the day, I want to win, and so I try to do whatever I can to win,” Mahomes said. “But you have to believe in the guys around you. You have to know that you can go the long way, you can take the short pass and guys will make guys miss. You can hang in the pocket and make the throws. At the end of the day, I just want to win and whatever that takes, I’m going to try to do. I’ll look at this film, learn from it and try to come out better on Monday night this week.”