Patrick Mahomes is arguably the best quarterback in the NFL. In Week 1, Mahomes is just on another level.
In his first game without Tyreek Hill, Mahomes had a typical Mahomes performance. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback went 30 of 39 for 360 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions in a 44-17 blowout of the Arizona Cardinals Sunday.
That's just another standout performance from Mahomes in a season opener. In five Week 1 games, Mahomes has completed 72.5% of his passes for 1,542 yards with 18 touchdowns and zero interceptions (136.9 rating). The Chiefs are 5-0 in Week 1 games under Mahomes and won their last eight season opening contests.
"To me, he's pretty good all the time," Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said after Sunday's win. "We're lucky to have him. Kansas City is lucky to have him. The National Football League is lucky to have him, because he's a good person and a good football player. I think he does pretty good all the time."
Mahomes had his sixth game with five touchdown passes in his career, which is tied for fourth most in NFL history. Only Drew Brees (11), Tom Brady (9), and Peyton Manning (9) have more. Mahomes was 15-for-21 with four touchdown passes against the Cardinals blitz -- as he was blitzed the most of any quarterback in the NFL in Week 1 (54%).
Continuing his dominance in the month of September, Mahomes has thrown 42 touchdowns to just three interceptions in the month. His has played 14 September games and finished with three-plus touchdown passes in 12 of those contests.
Why is Mahomes so good in season openers? He passed credit to his head coach for his excellence in starting the year.
"The first thing is Coach (Andy) Reid wanting to get more weeks to game plan, that's always a good thing for me because he's getting guys to run open," Mahomes said. "The other thing is how I think we do training camp. I think Coach Reid does a great training camp. It's hard, it's hard for everybody but I think it prepares for you to be ready Week 1. Then you go out there and execute.
"Coach Reid has a great game plan and you have guys flying around that are ready to go, ready to play a game and not be at practice against each other. We did a great job of executing in Week 1 -- now let's carry it on to Week 2."
