ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Maybe there’s a message with the haircut.
When last seen in live action, Patrick Mahomes had it thoroughly handed to him by the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl 59 rout. Three turnovers. Six sacks. No three-peat. It was the most crushing loss of Mahomes’ magnificent career.
And now the Kansas City Chiefs star has a new ‘do, changing his look during the offseason after having a significant amount of hair chopped off. It might make you wonder whether there’s some serious superstition in the mix for a man so keen on the details.
Well, not.
‘I was ready to get my hair cut the last three years,’ Mahomes, grinning, told USA TODAY Sports after a training camp practice last weekend. ‘We had won the Super Bowl two years in a row. I told the guys I was getting a haircut this year, even if we won.
‘I’m turning 30. Wanted to change it up. It worked out. I still have a little bit of curls up top. It’s just not as long as it used to be.’
No, Mahomes, whose 30th birthday is Sept. 17, is hardly having an identity crisis. Go ahead, check his pulse. He knows that even with the Super Bowl setback ending what was arguably his most challenging season, he’s still the key reason why the Chiefs are poised to make another run at a championship.
Yet there’s no denying how much the stinging, 40-22 loss in February has driven Mahomes in the months leading to the next season. Long months. To call it motivational fuel may seem trite, but that’s how he puts it. And he’s the one with three Super Bowl MVP trophies. He’s the one who bemoaned his performance in the press conference after the game, then apologized on social media to Chiefs fans. He’s the one who has to live out the high standard that everyone – beginning with himself – has for him.
He’s the one who is such a winner that, fair or not, the seasons are judged on whether or not the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. I reminded Mahomes of what he said in the days leading up to Super Bowl 59, when someone asked him if there was a game that kept him up at night. He didn’t hesitate to identify the Super Bowl 55 loss against the Bucs.
Now consider Super Bowl 59. It might give him nightmares.
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‘When you make it that far and then you’re at the end, it just hurts,’ Mahomes said. ‘You put so much hard work into it. So, losing on that final step is always hard. But it’s how you respond. I thought we responded well after that last Super Bowl loss, just kind of building back and getting even better and winning a couple more championships.
‘So, now it’s about, ‘Where are we going to go now? Are we going to get even better from that loss? Are we going to find ways to make everyone better, not just one person?’ I feel like we’ve done that in camp. But you can’t prove it until you go out there and do it.’
Of course, as great as Mahomes is, it’s never all on one player. Two of the biggest questions in the Chiefs training camp revolve around the overhauled offensive line and the development of the wide receiver corps.
That Mahomes absorbed a career-high six sacks in the Super Bowl – without a single blitz, reflecting how overmatched his O-line was against Philadelphia’s powerful front – was no mere aberration. He was sacked a career-high 36 times during the regular season.
And the problems protecting his blind side stuck out. Kansas City started four players at left tackle last season, including All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney. The patchwork arrangements worked well enough for the Chiefs to reach the Super Bowl, but the deficiency was exposed further when it mattered most.
The overhauled line included the trade of Thuney to the Chicago Bears and the first-round selection of Ohio State product Josh Simmons, the projected answer at left tackle.
Meanwhile, just like last year, the Chiefs hope to add punch with a consistent deep passing game. Injuries undermined the efforts last season (first to Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown, then to Rashee Rice), which is one reason Mahomes didn’t pass for 4,000 yards for the first time since he became a starter in 2018.
Mahomes’ 26 touchdown passes in 2024 tied for the lowest total of his career as a starter, and for the first time since 2018 he wasn’t selected to the Pro Bowl.
So, there were some significant markers that underscored the challenges for Mahomes in trying to establish a consistent rhythm. Sure, the Chiefs finished 15-2 to win a ninth consecutive AFC West title. Yet there were too many close calls for comfort, with games going down to the wire. And too often, Mahomes narrowly missed in connecting for big plays.
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‘There’s stuff we’ve got to get better at,’ Mahomes said. ‘Especially myself. There’s plays on the football field that I didn’t make last year, that I’ve made in previous years. At the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever it takes to win, whether that’s passing for a lot of yards, not passing for a lot of yards. But I think if I play better, that’s going to make it better for the team. So, I’ve got to be better at executing whenever the shots are there, making those throws. Because that’s going to alleviate pressure on our defense and make them play more free and make the team play more free.’
Mahomes knows the formula better than most, with the Chiefs advancing to at least the AFC title in each of his seven seasons as a starter. Now add another dose of fire to the equation, flowing from the Super embarrassment.
‘It just gives you a little extra in some of the workouts and those film sessions, to try to find the little things to get even better,’ Mahomes said. ‘You try to do that when you have success, but at the same time when you have success you can sometimes be complacent. Obviously, you don’t want to lose the game, but it can give you a little bit more motivation to be even better.’
Which is quite the warning for the rest of the NFL.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell
On Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social