THE RELIEF MAN | Patrick Mahomes faces key playoffs for his NFL career in 2022

Although the Kansas City Chiefs never seriously jeopardized their qualification for the 2021-22 NFL playoffs, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was left behind in his performance during the regular round. Now the talented player has a new chance to put any criticism to rest if he leads his squad to the Super Bowl again, which would be the third in a row in recent years. Rarely do you see a feat like that in American football and for Mahomes this may be the incentive he lacks to finish on top.

One point in its favor is that Mahomes and the Chiefs are on the rise for the postseason. In the last 10 regular-round games, the Chiefs have won 9 times with the quarterback debunking any criticism of his performance. The accusations came, however, in the first half of the regular round when he fell to repeated delivery errors that led him to end 2021 with a career-high 13 interceptions.

Going through the underperformance already may be what Mahomes needs to realize that he can’t sink any lower in these playoffs. Without the pressure of the first weeks, and especially not being considered the main favorite for the title, the quarterback may be more loose to take Kansas City to the distant instances.

He already showed it in 2019, when he won the league championship after finishing as the best team in the AFC but failing to be eliminated in the first round of the 2018 postseason. The Chiefs played those decisive games almost without mistakes, away from the pressure and without the poster of great favorites.