Patrick Mahomes (Image via Getty Images)
Patrick Mahomes is heading into 2026 recovering from a torn ACL and LCL, coming off his first losing season in Kansas City, and now ranked No. 18 on the NFL Top 100 — his lowest position since 2022. For a man with five Super Bowl appearances and a 17-4 playoff record, the noise around him has never been louder — or less fair. Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report pointed to Stafford’s eye-popping 115.4 passer rating in the fourth quarter of one-score games since 2024, edging out Mahomes’ still-exceptional 113.2 in similar situations over the last five years. Stafford has an eye-popping 115.4 rating in the fourth quarter of one-score games since 2024. But if you extend back to 2020, that number only drops slightly to 107.0.”
Because of what he’s done for us lately, gagnon wrote: “The reigning MVP edges out the legendary Mahomes, mainly. If that wasn’t enough, Bleacher Report just placed him second on their most clutch quarterbacks list, behind reigning MVP Matthew Stafford . The numbers behind Stafford’s rise are real.
Stafford had a genuinely brilliant 2025 season. But ranking him above a quarterback who has led 17 game-winning drives in the regular season over five years, orchestrated six more in the playoffs, and produced five fourth-quarter comebacks — while no other QB has more than three during that stretch — raises a serious question about what clutch actually means in this league. Stafford is 7-6 in the postseason. Mahomes is 17-4. Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL in Week 15 last season against the Chargers. Before the injury, he had already set career bests in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, and yards per game, while also clearing 3,500 passing yards for the eighth consecutive season as a starter. The team around him wasn’t, and Kansas City finished 6-11, missing the playoffs entirely. Stafford’s 2025 was exceptional. Mahomes’ 2025 was derailed by injury.
That recency argument is exactly the problem. Nobody is disputing that. The playoff record gap is impossible to ignore. That’s not a comparison; that’s a different sport entirely. Mahomes has reached the Super Bowl more years than not. That kind of consistency under the biggest pressure the game offers is the literal definition of clutch, and no fourth-quarter passer rating from a single regular season should override it. The production was there. The NFL has always been a league with a short memory, and right now that short memory is working against Mahomes. But one difficult year and a knee surgery do not erase a nine-year body of work that has no equal in league history.