Let’s get a simple truth out of the way: Patrick Mahomes is the best soccer player right now.
Maybe someone will do something this season that creates a counterargument, but for now, it’s clear. Mahomes just earned Super Bowl MVP honors after leading his team to a championship a year after dominating his path to an MVP award. His featured shots are already legendary. He is the most successful player in NFL history in his first three seasons since Jim Brown, which is terribly impressive considering that he basically reversed his rookie season.
The market reflected that fact when the Chiefs gave Mahomes a half-trillion-dollar contract that broke the market, a statement that he is not only the most valuable player in football, but will be for several years.
So first place in the NFL Top 100, the annual NFL Network poll in which NFL players vote on the top 100 soccer players, seemed like an inevitable conclusion. After reaching No. 4 last year, a Super Bowl ring would propel Mahomes to first place.
And then, well …
Fourth. Mahomes was voted fourth. The same as last year.
Not only was he voted fourth, but he was also the third quarterback. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was ranked No. 1, while Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson entered No. 2. Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald finished third.
Patrick Mahomes is the third-best quarterback in soccer, according to NFL players. (AP Photo / David J. Phillip)
Obviously, the other two quarterbacks are extremely good. Wilson only brought a meager cast of Seattle Seahawks support to the playoffs this year, and Jackson took home an unanimous MVP honor after one of the best regular seasons in NFL history. But this seems to be a matter of common sense.
No player has combined the dominance of the regular season and the postseason like Mahomes has since the second he took over as a starter in Kansas City. No player, except perhaps Jackson, has clearly required defenses to recondition so Mahomes doesn’t hit Tyreek Hill or Mecole Hardman with a bomb. A penalty outside of Dee Ford could have been all that prevented Mahomes from winning consecutive rings.
Mahomes seems to be very aware of this.
No one should expect the NFL Top 100 to be truly objective, as an electorate of players will be biased. What Jackson did last season was unprecedented, but we thought something similar about Mahomes the season before and then he went out and won the Super Bowl. It’s just still baffling that a player with the resume, highlights, and presence of Mahomes could be ranked as anyone other than No. 1 in a poll like this, even if it really doesn’t matter.
