Patrick Mahomes overcomes ankle injury to lead Chiefs past Jaguars, reach AFC Championship game

In the NFL, historical measurements of greatness start with Super Bowls. After coming back into the game following a painful ankle injury to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes is one win away from reaching the Super Bowl for the third time in the last four years.

Though the final stat line won’t go down as one of his best of the season, finishing 22-of-30 for 195 yards and two touchdowns, Mahomes was limited following a second-quarter ankle sprain that had many doubting that he would be able to return for the second half. It is going to be the major story of the week in the NFL.

Nursing a 17-10 halftime lead, it may have been risky to keep playing backup QB Chad Henne, but it was also terrifying to consider what would happen to the Chiefs if Mahomes aggravated his ankle injury or wasn’t his typical superhuman self.

Mahomes gutted out the second half and a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter gave the Chiefs a 10-point lead. The Jaguars turned it over on the next drive, and for the most part ended the game, sending Kansas City to their fifth AFC Championship game since 2018.

The only quarterback this century to reach the Super Bowl three times in four years is Tom Brady. The comparison would seem unfair if it were any other quarterback, but now heading to his fifth AFC Championship in the last five years, Mahomes is the one NFL player who nobody will dispute belongs in a tier of his own in the current era.

Mahomes is enjoying a combination of individual and team success early in his career that few, not even Brady, can say they experienced before.

Brady went to eight straight AFC Championship games with the New England Patriots from 2011 to 2018, reaching five Super Bowls and winning three of those. The last time Brady and head coach Bill Belichick went to an AFC Championship game together was in that 2018 edition, a 37-31 Patriots win over the Chiefs in overtime. Mahomes threw three touchdowns in that game, outplaying even Brady, but what we didn’t know at the time was that it may have served as a ceremonious passing of the torch from one AFC superhuman to another.

Mahomes, who is now 5-0 in divisional round playoff games, is going to his fifth conference championship game, which is more than 12 franchises have been to in their history. It is the same number of conference championships as the Giants, Bears, Browns, and Jets. Mahomes has now won nine playoff games, which one is fewer than Tom Brady for the most-ever by a player through six seasons. This is more impressive when you consider that Mahomes has never had to play in a Wild Card game and he sat behind Alex Smith during his rookie season.

Individually, Mahomes has thrown 30 playoff touchdowns, which is 10 more than any other player has ever had through his first six NFL seasons.

The last time that the AFC Championship game didn’t feature Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady was 2010, a game so long ago that it featured Mark Sanchez in a 24-19 Pittsburgh Steelers win over the New York Jets.

When is the next time that an AFC Championship game won’t have Mahomes? That answer could have some doubt this week depending on the extent of his ankle injury. Given how he fought to get back into the game on Saturday and how he played in the second half, it would be a mistake to rule him out.