CLEVELAND — The greatest quarterback year in the 59-season history of the Kansas City Chiefs continued on Sunday for Patrick Mahomes. His teammate, running back Kareem Hunt, said he isn’t surprised by how well the first-year starting quarterback is doing.
“I just know what type of player he is and how competitive he is and he’s going to take chances,” Hunt said. “Most of the time they’re good chances.”
Mahomes was almost all good again, this time against the Cleveland Browns. He was 23-of-32 for 375 yards and three touchdown passes as the Chiefs went to 8-1 with a 37-21 victory.
Mahomes, with 29 touchdown passes through nine games, is one away from the 54-year-old team record. Len Dawson, who later was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, threw 30 touchdown passes for the Chiefs in the old AFL in 1964.
Mahomes has 2,883 yards, which puts him on a pace for 5,157. That would easily break the Chiefs’ record of 4,591 set by Trent Green in 2004.
Mahomes also had his eighth straight game with at least 300 passing yards. Drew Brees has the NFL record with two streaks of nine straight games with 300 or more passing yards.
To Chiefs coach Andy Reid, Mahomes’ contributions go beyond the numbers.
“You appreciate him when you’re around him every day and just the spirit that he brings, the attitude he has,” Reid said. “You don’t even worry about him getting a big head or getting complacent. It’s a weird deal. He just goes out and he plays. He works hard and he loves doing it. He just goes about his business the way you’re supposed to do it.”
Mahomes threw two touchdown passes to Travis Kelce and one to Kareem Hunt, who scored Kansas City’s two other touchdowns by run.
Mahomes, as he usually does, deflected all credit for his accomplishments to his receivers.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It makes my job a lot easier knowing I can trust these guys. They’re going to be in the right spot. They’re taking care of their business. They’re running the routes and making route adjustments on the fly. They’ve looked at the film and know how to do those things. Them having that much talent as well as really studying the film so much, that’s what really makes our offense so good.”
Kelce made a nice grab of Mahomes’ final touchdown pass, a 13-yard catch in the third quarter. Kelce shielded the defender and then out-jumped him to make the catch.
“That was great trust there, phenomenal trust,” Reid said of the Mahomes-Kelce connection. “A lot of hours have gone into that.”
Said Mahomes, “It made me look a lot better that he caught it.”