To win a Super Bowl, quarterbacks have to break through the Patrick Mahomes ceiling

Patrick Mahomes has kept many elite QBs — like AFC Championship foe Josh Allen — out of the Super Bowl in recent seasons. Will that change on Sunday?

From 2004 to 2019, the AFC was largely dominated — at least in the playoffs — by three quarterbacks.

In that 16-year stretch, the conference was represented in the Super Bowl by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger a combined 15 times. (The lone party crasher was Joe Flacco in 2013.)

Since 2020 however, that dominance has shifted to one person: Patrick Mahomes, who stands one win away Sunday from his fifth Super Bowl appearance in six years. And in his constant parade to Super Bowl after Super Bowl, Mahomes has left in his wake a murderer’s row of quarterbacks who may have already won — or at least appeared in — championships in a different era.

Several present-day luminaries have been drafted at quarterback since Mahomes became the Kansas City Chiefs’ full-time starter in 2018. In that year alone both Lamar Jackson (most likely on his way to a third MVP award) and Josh Allen were drafted by the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills, respectively. Neither has defeated Mahomes in the playoffs.

The 2020 draft added the likes of Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts to Mahomes’ list of foes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/nfl/patrick-mahomes-kansas-city-chiefs-super-bowl-rcna188813

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