Coaching a legend isn’t as easy as it seems.
Chiefs pᴀssing game coordinator Joe Bleymaier detailed the immense pressure he felt heading into Super Bowl 2025, where Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City attempted to become the first Super Bowl three-peaters.
“It makes it so much more stressful,” Bleymaier told ESPN before the 40-22 loss to the Eagles. “You feel the burden as a coach and as you’re putting a game plan together to not waste his abilities. To not go through a season where you don’t give him the opportunity. To not screw it up as the coaching staff. So rather than feeling like this just unbridled excitement that we could do anything, it’s actually more like a terror, like we cannot be the reason that we screwed this guy up or this team up.”
Having won three rings through his age-29 season, Mahomes has a sH๏τ to track down Tom Brady and his seven championships and challenge him for Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T.) status.
Sunday’s setback certainly didn’t help the cause, with Mahomes playing one of the worst games of his career in the rout and the Chiefs potentially facing mᴀssive changes.
Future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce is contemplating retirement and a shaky offensive line that couldn’t block a folding chair in Super Bowl 2025 could lose star guard Trey Smith in free agency.
Futures can change with just one play in a contact sport like football, and the Chiefs’ coaching staff is aware of how each season affects Mahomes’ standing among the greats.
Bleymaier said that greatness is constantly on his mind during game planning sessions with head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.
“Are we utilizing him the best? Are we giving him the stuff that he needs?” Bleymaier told the outlet. “It’s just constantly second-guessing ourselves just so that he has everything he needs to go be himself.”
It’s not just the coaches that feel that way.
Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal noted how Mahomes told his teammates he needed to play better in the second half after throwing two first-half interceptions, including a game-changing pick-six that contributed heavily to the 24-0 deficit Kansas City faced after the first 30 minutes.
Though Mahomes did not play well, Kansas City’s offensive line did not provide much support.
“He demanded better of himself. And guys all around him were like, ‘We need to be better for you, too, Patrick,’” Chenal told ESPN.
Mahomes is now 3-2 in Super Bowls in his career, and the Chiefs’ window to win championships stays open as long as he is under center.
Some, like Dave Portnoy, have said the G.O.A.T debate is over after Mahomes suffered a second Super Bowl blowout of at least 18 points, while Brady lost his three Super Bowls all by one score.
The Chiefs have opened as co-favorites to win the Super Bowl next season, a reflection of sportsbooks’ and bettors’ trust that Mahomes makes any team, no matter the parts, a contender.
“Anytime you lose a Super Bowl, it’s the worst feeling in the world. It will stick with you the rest of your career,” Mahomes said after Sunday’s game. “These will be the two losses that motivate me to be even better for the rest of my career because you only get so few of these and you have to capitalize on these, and they hurt probably more than the wins feel good.”
