PatrickMahomes

News: 6 days agoMahomes completed 16 of 25 pass attempts for 177 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 14 yards on seven attempts in Saturday's 23-14 playoff win over the Texans.

Spin: Mahomes' stats didn't pop in Saturday's box score, but he made plays when necessary against a stout defense in order to lift the Chiefs on to the AFC Championship Game. The superstar's lone touchdown pass was a highlight-reel play in which he delivered a strike to Travis Kelce as a Houston defender was dragging the quarterback to the ground. Mahomes' minor ankle injury that he was nursing at the end of the regular season appears to be fully in the rearview mirror. The Chiefs will now await the conclusion of Sunday's divisional-round matchup between the Bills and Ravens in order to see which team will visit Kansas City next Sunday.

ESPN Fantasy Projection: Though Mahomes' 2023 saw him post his worst yards per attempt (7.0), aDOT (6.2), touchdown (4.5%) and interception (2.3%) rates of his six seasons as an NFL regular, consider the context: He was working with his weakest set of receivers in any of those years. The Chiefs were worst in the league in drops (38) and had the second-worst catch rate on throws 20-plus yards downfield (27.4%), after having been seventh best in that department the season before. Mahomes made it work -- he led the team to a Super Bowl title, after all -- and it's a testament to his overwhelming, Hall of Fame-caliber talent that he finished eighth among quarterbacks in scoring in spite of his supporting cast. The additions of Marquise Brown and Xavier Worthy, coupled with Rashee Rice's late-season emergence, should give Mahomes the weapons necessary to rebound as a top-five positional pick and early-round selection.