Early in his career, Patrick Mahomes was one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL at throwing deep touchdown passes. Over the past two years (not coincidentally, after Tyreek Hill was traded), that has changed. This year, Mahomes is once again finding the end zone with his deep passes.
According to Next Gen Stats, Mahomes has thrown two touchdown passes that traveled more than 20 yards in the air this season: a 35-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Worthy in Week One and a 44-yard touchdown pass to Rashee Rice in Week Two. That means he already has as many touchdown passes on balls thrown at least 20 yards in the air this season as he had in the 2022 and 2023 seasons combined.
From 2018 to 2021, Mahomes threw 44 deep touchdown passes. So, in his first four seasons, Mahomes averaged nearly one deep touchdown pass per game. In the next two seasons, Mahomes only averaged one per season. And now he's averaging one per game again.
The addition of Worthy, a first-round pick after setting the Scouting Combine record for the fastest 40-yard dash, was intended to help Mahomes stretch the field. The Chiefs' offense is now even more dangerous.
