Tom Brady is emphatic about the difficulties Patrick Mahomes is dealing with quarterbacking behind a Kansas City Chiefs offensive line that’s a work in progress. However, Brady also knows that there might not be a better quarterback than Mahomes to navigate such a situation.
In an interview with FS1’s “The Herd,” Brady credited Mahomes for using “Mahomes magic” to “pull the rabbit out of his hat in order to keep his team in the game.” He also shared what it was like for him to play behind an offensive line he didn’t have complete trust in, relating to the situation Mahomes is dealing with.
“They’ve been trying to find a left tackle at that position for a long time in that offense, and it’s a challenge because it affects the way the quarterback feels,” Brady said. “Can I really sit back there and do I trust my teammates up front to be able to protect me long enough so that I could see down the field to read the coverage and then make a very decisive, accurate throw?
“So he’s got to find a way to overcome that, and he has, in so many ways. Despite his stats being down a little bit last year, I still think he had an incredible season. They won 15 games.”
Tom Brady on the pressure mounting on the Chiefs & Patrick Mahomes
Last season, the Chiefs started four different players at left tackle as they dealt with injuries and poor play at the position throughout the year. Despite that, Kansas City’s offensive line actually ranked as the seventh-best unit in the NFL by Pro Football Focus.
Brady seemingly gave Mahomes some credit for that. When he was asked about which quarterbacks are the best at making pre-snap reads, he mentioned the Chiefs’ star.
“I think Patrick really understands the game and [coverage] combinations like that as well,” Brady said.
The Chiefs continued to play musical chairs at left tackle to start the 2025 season. They drafted Ohio State’s Josh Simmons with their first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and after a strong training camp, the Chiefs made him their starting left tackle to open the year.
Simmons didn’t have a great showing in the Chiefs’ 27-21 Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. He gave up four pressures, per Pro Football Focus, and was called for two penalties.
Patrick Mahomes was sacked twice in the Chiefs’ Week 1 loss to the Chargers. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Simmons isn’t the Chiefs’ only new starter along the offensive line, though. Kingsley Suamataia, who the Chiefs took in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, is starting at left guard after making two starts at left tackle last season.
Brady believes that those two will eventually help the Chiefs have “a pretty good offensive line as they gel and grow together” and will give Mahomes the confidence he needs in the pocket. That might not come to fruition when the Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl LIX rematch on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), but that would be pretty big for them as the season goes along considering how the 2024 season ended.
“The Super Bowl, so much of that game ended up being, ‘Can we block the Eagles’ defensive front?’ That Eagles defensive front played their tail off that game, and really the Chiefs had no chance when they were rushing that well,” Brady said.
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