Patrick Mahomes Headed To QB Mt. Rushmore If November-December Domination Continues

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was constructing his hypothetical Mount Rushmore of NFL quarterbacks recently to shine a light on the greatest of all time.

The Mahomes QB Mount Rushmore:

Tom Brady.

Joe Montana.

"Four Super Bowls, got to put him on there," Mahomes said on the New Heights podcast.

Peyton Manning.

"Then to me, right now, it's a tie between Dan Marino and John Elway," Mahomes said. "I don't know who that fourth one is just because has the rings. But Marino, if you look at the stats, dude, his season -- 48 touchdowns in that era? Best quarterback season has to be in history, I don't care what anyone says.

"That thing is one of the most special seasons and then every time I've been putting up and breaking these records and every time it's like, 'Dan Marino had 170 touchdowns in three years.' I'm like, what? I thought they ran the ball back then.

"So Elway just because of the rings, but Dan Marino is right there if not on there."

Chiefs Eye Bengals Rematch

This is an interesting exercise because some day a future quarterback savant may argue Mahomes is the best quarterback of this generation and belongs on his Mount Rushmore of NFL quarterbacks.

And all that future star would have to do to make the point is look at what Mahomes, drafted in 2017, did in November and December during some prime years of his career.

On Sunday Mahomes and the Chiefs visit the Cincinnati Bengals. It's a rematch of last year's AFC Championship game and perhaps a preview of this year's title game.

But what it is first and foremost is a Mahomes November-December game.

And that promises a great performance. Because for years now, Patrick Mahomes has owned November and December.

Mahomes has won 26 consecutive starts during the months of November and December. He and the Chiefs have not lost a game in November or December since 2019.

And the reason Mahomes is 26-1 in November and December dating back to 2019, is because the Chiefs lost a 35-32 decision to the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 10, 2019.

In that lone November-December loss Mahomes passed for 446 yards with 3 TD passes and no interceptions. His quarterback rating was 119.2.

The point is something happens with the Chiefs in general and their quarterback in particular when the NFL seasons turns to November and December.

Maybe it's the lure of the postseason.

Or the seeds of Andy Reid's coaching blooming late in the season.

Or maybe it's simply that Mahomes is a machine in November and December.

Mahomes Owns Nov. And Dec.

He has thrown 34 touchdowns passes in November the past four seasons compared to 7 interceptions. That includes this season in which, not surprisingly, Mahomes was named the NFL's player of the month for November.

Mahomes led the NFL in completions (116), passing yards (1,426) and touchdown passes (nine) in November. That helped the Chiefs win all four of their games during the month.

Mahomes passed for over 300 yards in each of November's four games and also rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown.

"I think that for Patrick, he’s in a good place right now," Chiefs quarterback coach Matt Nagy understated. "Our offense and our team is in a good place, so what we want to do is keep that going and make sure that play by play, drive by drive, game by game we keep this going because it’s been fun."

Whatever fun Mahomes is having during his usual steamrolling of November and December, Sunday's match against the Cincinnati Bengals presents a sizeable obstacle to all the merriment.

The Bengals, you may recall, beat the Chiefs twice last season. One of those was in the AFC Championship Game that cost the Chiefs a third consecutive trip to the Super Bowl.

So performing up to his late-season standard this weekend is on Mahomes's mind.

"Obviously, anytime somebody beats you the year before, you want to beat them, especially in a game like they beat us in to go to the Super Bowl," he said. "And we understand it’s a great football team that’s playing great football right now. So, we’ll go out there and put our effort forward and play our best football and try to get that win because it’s a big win in the season to try to hold that number one seed and win our division."

Mahomes playing his "best football?"

It's December. We've come to expect nothing less.

Follow on Twitter: @ArmandoSalguero