06-22-2023, 12:48 PM
(06-22-2023, 12:15 PM)SHRacerX Wrote: I am sure some of you are tired of this, and Ja'Marr;s recent "Pat Who?" only threw more gas on the fire. However, I think there is one angle that is not discussed in the comparison.
Before I begin, I know that Mahomes has won two Super Bowls and Burrow has none to date. I get that. But how about comparing how they did in a similar situation?
In 2022, the Cheifs lost some key pieces on their offensive line to injury before the Super Bowl. Their line was pretty good before then. Here is Mahomes stat line from that game:
26/49 for 270 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs.
He was facing an elite defense in Tampa Bay with a beat up offensive line.
Here is how Burrow fared in his Super Bowl loss to the Rams:
22/33 for 263, 1 TD, 0 INTS
In fairness, Burrow was sacked an astonishing 7 times for 43 yards. Mahomes was sacked 3 times for 27 yards.
There was a stat (couldn't find it exactly) about the difference between Mahomes and Burrow in last year's AFC title game in terms of time to throw before pressure. Mahomes had something like 1.5 more seconds per drop back.
Why stir up this tired debate? Because I think the Bengals have MORE weapons now, and have MORE depth now (including better starters) on the offensive line. I can't wait to see how Burrow fares with a normal offseason, these new weapons, and a better, deeper line.
Mahomes gets (rightfully) praised for his two Super Bowl victories, but he doesn't seem to take any criticism for how he fared when he didn't have a great (or at least one of the best) offensive lines.
I think the weakness in bringing up a point like this is you are trying to only use one game as the evidence against Mahomes. One could just as easily look at Burrow's game logs and say "Okay, Burrow stunk it up against the Browns in the 2021 season." That alone would kind of prove their point - you can't use a singular game as some kind of evidence for or against something. Obviously, Burrow played very well overall in 2021 despite that stinker of a game against Cleveland. If you gave Mahomes a full season behind a porous offensive line, I am sure he would also play very well.
Now, we can look at their performance when "under pressure" and it will show you that Burrow has a higher passer rating under pressure over the last two seasons than Mahomes does. However, Mahomes is better when he is kept clean. In 2021 they were nearly exactly the same, but in 2022 Mahomes was significantly better than Burrow when kept clean. It wasn't even close.
Personally, I don't think there is much of an argument for Burrow being better than Mahomes yet. However, I think there is a very strong argument that Burrow is #2.
