Swifties win, Shanahan loses. What a worldâŚ
In todayâs Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by Underdog Fantasy:
- Patrick Mahomes on the GOAT trajectory
- Unsung heroes steal the show
- Ianâs Super Bowl Wrap-Up: The Patrick Mahomes experience
- Itâs 2/12. Take it away, Peter OverzetâŚ
This was the year to knock off the Chiefs.
They faltered in the regular season. Patrick Mahomes looked mortal. They couldnât get any other pass catchers to step up. They faced an impossible gauntlet to the Super Bowl, including two road games against the AFCâs best.
But in the end, it didnât matter.
Great teams win and great players find a way to win.
The 49ers made plenty of mistakesâa CMC fumble, a Luter fumble, a Moody extra pointâand the Chiefs took advantage.
The Chiefs are not only back-to-back Super Bowl champions, but now have three titles in the last five seasons.
Thatâs what we call a dynasty.
As for Mahomes, the 3x Super Bowl champ and 3x Super Bowl MVP? Well, heâs on his way to chasing down Brady for GOAT status:
And it doesnât seem like itâll be slowing down anytime soon. Travis Kelce already promised another encore and then, yes, embraced his girlfriend, who apparently is the biggest pop star on the planet.
Read on for Ianâs full breakdown from the game. Otherwise, weâre onto the NFL DraftâŚ
đ The Big Game Was So Last Year!
Time to start drafting for 2024!
Underdog Fantasy already has contests for the next football season! The Big Board and Little Board are live with more contests on the way.
Not enough for you? Well, they have Best Ball contests for basketball, hockey, golf and the upcoming baseball season! In addition to that, you can try any of the Pick 'Em contests on Underdog Fantasy!
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Good luck, and start drafting on Underdog Fantasy!
đ When one door closes, another door opens. Dwain has you covered with his top 150 for 2024.
𤯠Andy Reid is a mad genius. The 49ers should have known, though.
âď¸ Getting a head start on 2024? Be mindful of these four players.
đ Sorry to get political. But what in the world is this tweet lol.
đ¤ Draft season is officially here. An initial look at the 2024 NFL draft.
â˛ď¸ How many times has the Super Bowl gone to overtime? What a treat.
đ Rough night to be a Taylor Swift hater. Thatâs a celebration.
𦶠A short-lived Super Bowl record. Tough luck for Jake Moody.
đŞ Your Super Bowl heroesâŚjust like we all expected.
Ian is here to share his big takeaways from the Super Bowl. Take it away, Ian...
Congrats to Chiefs Kingdom for taking down the 49ers 25-22 and capturing their third Super Bowl title in the last five years. While the game was relatively sloppy (7 total fumbles) and only featured one TD after 40 minutes of action, things escalated quickly down the stretch and led to a memorable back-and-forth overtime thriller.
What follows are seven thoughts on (sadly) the last meaningful NFL game weâll have the privilege of watching until next September.
đ The Patrick Mahomes experience
As if there was any doubt already: We are truly witnessing greatness in Kansas City. Mahomes now joins Tom Brady (5) and Joe Montana (3) as the only three-time Super Bowl MVP winners after throwing for 333 yards and two TDs to go along with a team-high 66 yards on the ground.
Reminder: Mahomes hasnât exactly had the luxury of working with the worldâs best pass-catchers this season.
No longer equipped with anything resembling consistent downfield threats, No. 15 posted a career-low 6.8-yard average target depth throughout the regular season before winning his two biggest games of the season with lowly marks against the Ravens (5.9) and 49ers (6.4) alike.
Of course, itâs not that Mahomes doesnât want to go deep; there just hasnât been a single consistent downfield WR threat in this offense since Tyreek Hill was shipped to Miami two years ago. Kudos to Mecole Hardman for hauling in this b-e-a-utiful bomb on Sunday, but Mahomes didn't complete a pass thrown 10-plus yards downfield after the 9:17 mark in the fourth quarter.
Good news: Mahomes has maintained the ability to consistently kill defenses by extending the plays, even if the result isnât a dagger deep pass quite as often as it used to be. Nobody has been better at avoiding sacks during his reign of terror â and this skill proved particularly useful against Nick Bosa and company on Sunday night:
- 2023: 10.6% of pressures resulted in a sack (No. 2 among all qualified QBs)
- 2022: 9.8% (No. 1)
- 2021: 13.4% (No. 3)
- 2020: 9.6% (No. 2)
- 2019: 11.6% (No. 3)
- 2018: 13.3% (No. 3)
Overall, Mahomes boasts the positionâs lowest pressure-to-sack rate (11.3%) since 2018 among 53 QBs with at least 250 pressured dropbacks, while he also ranked fourth (51.4%) and ninth (31.3%) in first downs and explosive runs per scramble this season. This doesnât even include his usual witchcraft which inevitably results in chunk gains through the air.
While Mahomes took three sacks against the 49ers, he lost just eight total yards and posted a 9-66-0 rushing line that included five first downs. Turns out taking away the deep ball doesnât exactly help with, you know, getting the now three-time Super Bowl champion to the ground.
