Patrick Mahomes is the MVP. That's the column.
That would, actually, be the entire column but my bosses want more than one sentence and you deserve more context and the world deserves to know more of the story. So let's get to it.
Year 1 as a starter, Patrick Mahomes won the NFL's MVP award.
Watch again: The A-Team breaks down the Chiefs-Panthers game ahead of team's week off
Year 2 as a starter, Mahomes won the Super Bowl and that game's MVP award.
Year 3 as a starter, Mahomes is so much better than either of those seasons. In some ways, he's now the best parts of each — the otherworldly danger from Year 1, with advanced brainpower from Year 2 — but even that doesn't quite do this justice.
The Chiefs beat the Panthers 33-31 at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday despite playing poorly in every way except passing. All they need is Mahomes' best. If that happens, nothing else matters.
This was as close to the 2018 Chiefs offense as a much-improved defense has forced upon opponents, and this was the continuation of an alarmingly consistent improvement for a third-year starter who began his career arc on a literal MVP level.
"You're seeing the best of him right now," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. "And some of it you might not see."
"I think I just understand the game more," Mahomes said.
"I can definitely second or third that, however many people have been saying that," tight end Travis Kelce said. "He's definitely playing his best ball right now."
The Chiefs are 8-1, a lock for the postseason and in the middle of a herd competing for the AFC's top seed. They will have the next week off, and then the most interesting part of their schedule — a revenge game at the Raiders, one of the league's most anticipated games of the season at the Bucs, and then the Broncos (meh), the Dolphins (they're better!) and the Saints. All that's missing is the Steelers.
The Chiefs will be stretched in all three phases, and they have long since achieved success on a level that brings weekly national analysis.
As this all ramps up, let there be no doubt. Mahomes is the league's best player, and he's currently performing better than ever.
He completed 30 of 45 passes for 372 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions against the Panthers. He did this in a game in which the nationally broadcast analysis was largely about how much the Chiefs' offense was struggling.
Mahomes is obliterating norms, is the thing. He is statistically outrageous. He is now on pace to complete 67% of his passes for 4,777 yards, 44 touchdowns and two interceptions.
Here is the complete list of quarterbacks who've had seasons like that, or even a first nine games like this:
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Mahomes also entered the week ranked first in a variety of metrics: projected EPA/play, QBR, Football Outsiders' DVOA, and more. He was the MVP favorite according to Pro Football Focus, though Russell Wilson remained the heavy betting favorite.
Now we get into the finer point. There is a lot of energy for Wilson to be the MVP. He deserves that energy. He is a Super Bowl champion, a six-time Pro Bowler and is somehow still generally underrated. He's been one of the game's best quarterbacks for nearly a decade now, long enough that his genius can sometimes blend into the background.
This season has shifted that narrative. He entered the week leading the league in touchdowns and is on a 56-TD pace. The Seahawks are 6-2 in the NFL's toughest division despite carrying what is basically the 2018 Chiefs defense.
He's now somewhat famously never received an MVP vote, and the Let Russ Cook thing finally taking traction makes for a great story.
That's great and all, and maybe this column should come with a disclaimer that we've watched all of Mahomes' snaps at least three times this season and see Wilson mostly through highlights. But it's hard to imagine anyone is playing quarterback better than Mahomes right now.
Reid used these words intentionally: "some of it you might not see." He referenced a recent interview with Richard Sherman, in which the 49ers cornerback described a pass that Sherman thought he'd pick-six until Mahomes adjusted his target mid-throw and led Hill away from Sherman for a completion and gain.
There are a bazillion of these stories, because the problem with Mahomes is that he cannot be typecast.
He is athletic enough that he turned down a potential seven-figure signing bonus from baseball and was a good enough point forward in high school that his dad once saw football as his son's third-best sport (fourth if you count ping-pong). Yet he would always rather throw.
He is talented enough for a half-billion dollar contract, yet his teammates often talk about his humility when asked what they like about him.
He is gifted enough to literally throw a football out of the stadium, and yet his greatest strength as a quarterback might be his combination of next-level brainpower and insatiable work ethic.
"The amount of film he watches, you have to love this game," Kelce said. "It's a ridiculous amount of film from years and years of taking defensive coordinators and seeing what they've been doing in the past. It's remarkable how much information you can throw up there in his head and (he's) able to make an instinctual decision."
We've seen that a lot, too, perhaps most famously during the Chiefs' playoff game against the Texans, when NFL cameras caught Kelce in awe of Mahomes' ability to read his mind on a route despite never practicing the particulars.
This latest glimpse is a new one. You remember the Sunday touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson, the one in which Mahomes went in motion, then came back to take the shotgun snap while still in motion, putting enough doubt in the defense's head that Robinson broke wide open in the back of the end zone?
Turns out that was Mahomes' creativity. He'd been messing around with motions, had this idea he thought might work, got his teammates to show it to Reid in practice one day, and the rest is highlights.
Some of the MVP stuff is out of his control, of course. If Wilson gets to 50 touchdown passes he'll have a strong case. Only three men have done that in a season, and each won MVP (Mahomes being one of them, of course). The Seahawks would be a mess with an average quarterback.
Wilson is great, and only a fool would say otherwise. He'll probably lead the league in touchdown passes, and salute to him if he wins the MVP.
But Wilson has also turned it over 10 times this season. Mahomes hasn't turned it over 10 times going all the way back to last season, even if you include the playoffs.
Also: What if Mahomes keeps this up, or anything close to it?
What if the Chiefs are 14-2 or better, and Mahomes has an unprecedented touchdowns-to-interceptions season, sort of like a rocket ship with a Volvo's safety rating? What in the world would voters do with that?
NFL analysis is more sophisticated than ever, remember. Voters see more than simple stats and highlights. They examine advanced metrics that amplify Mahomes' subtleties, and they'll hear more stories like the play design that created the touchdown to Robinson against the Panthers on Sunday.
We're watching unrelenting greatness. We're watching a man who entered the league as an MVP and is only getting better. Whether it's good enough for another MVP will be seen, and mostly outside of what Mahomes can control.
But at the moment, we know it's the best he's ever been, and that the Super Bowl champs are better than they've ever been because of it.
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