Patrick Mahomes Issues A Challenge
With a record-breaking contract and a Super Bowl MVP just three years into his career, Patrick Mahomes is at the pinnacle of his position.
But there's one category where the Chiefs QB has yet to reign supreme — and he's looking to settle the score.
Despite those Madden 21 ratings, which were released last week, Mahomes believes he has the best deep-ball arm in the NFL.
That's an accolade generally reserved for Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, so on Friday, the Super Bowl champion joined SportsCenter to issue a challenge:
“Obviously, Josh has an extremely strong arm, but I’ve yet to see someone have a stronger arm than me. Maybe we can line up. I know we talked about maybe having a throw-off and then we can prove who really has the strongest arm.”
The highest paid athlete in American sports history even called his shot:
Just in case you needed any proof that Mahomes can indeed let it fly, there's this clip from a little over a year ago:
On top of being able to throw the pigskin obscene distances, Mahomes is one of the NFL's best at completing the long ball.
In 14 games last season, Mahomes earned the 2nd-best passer rating on deep targets (122.9) in the NFL, and totaled 13 touchdowns on those deep targets.
Still, in terms of being able to air it out, Mahomes has some stiff competition in Allen.
In fact, before he even entered the NFL, our Joel Klatt raved about Allen's arm strength.
"Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen – his best attribute, by far, is his arm. He's got one of the best and strongest arms that I have ever seen up close in person."
In terms of efficiency, however, Allen has not shown the same consistency as Mahomes, according to the numbers.
While throwing the ball deep at the 6th highest rate, Allen's completion percentage (24.1%) was 2nd-to-last in the NFL, and he had the highest rate of uncatchable, inaccurate passes on those targets, according to Pro Football Focus.
We're not sure if this fabled throwing contest would include receivers or just be about brute arm strength, but regardless, it would be a spectacle.
And for the record, this isn't the first time the two have visited the topic, with Allen challenging Mahomes to a throw-off back in February of last year, a challenge that Mahomes apparently accepted then and is reissuing now.
If you want to put your money down on one of these already legendary arms, FOXBet has you covered, with Allen (-160) coming out of the gates as the early favorite over Mahomes (+135).
So – who are you taking?