There was a time when Ryan Clark was a fair, thoughtful analyst on ESPN. Unlike his hot take-addicted peers, the former Pittsburgh Steelers safety offered rational opinions on football.
Well, those days might be over.
During an appearance Monday on “First Take,” Clark said Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes already is better than any quarterback in NFL history ever has been. Yes, that includes Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees, three legends who combined have won eight Super Bowl championships.
“Patrick Mahomes is better than all these dudes ever were,” Clark said. “I’m talking 2007 Tom Brady, 2011 and 2015 Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees in 2011. In all of their greatest years, the greatest they’ve ever been, they’ve never been as good as Patrick Mahomes.
” … I don’t care about their resumes. I care about when I watch it, and I see (Mahomes) make a throw, I go, ‘Drew can’t do that. Tom Can’t do that. Aaron can probably do it, but he’s the only one.’ And when that starts to happen, that’s when you know that he hasn’t only surpassed them now, that’s an easy question. We know if you’re starting a team now, and it’s just for this year, you take Patrick Mahomes over all these dudes.”
Yowzers.
Listen, Mahomes is incredible. If we were starting a franchise, he absolutely would be the first player drafted.
That said, Clark seemingly has fallen prisoner to Mahomes’ flashy style of play, along with the gaudy numbers he puts up on a weekly basis. There’s as much to be said for Mahomes’ flashy, exciting brilliance as there is for Brady’s consistent, mistake-free excellence.
