Patriots Great Offers Take On Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes Debate

Tom Brady set the standard for NFL quarterbacks during his legendary career.

The illustrious Patriots star won six Super Bowl titles with New England and a seventh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and holds the all-time records in passing yards (89,214) and passing touchdowns (649).

Patrick Mahomes has three championships to his name and will be aiming for his fourth when the Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.

While Mahomes’ stats are phenomenal (245 touchdowns and 32,352 yards) for the Chiefs signal-caller across the seven full seasons he’s played in the NFL, he still has a long way to go to catch up to Brady.

“He’s just gotta do it for a long time,” former NFL wide receiver Julian Edelman said on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Tuesday when asked what Mahomes would have to do to surpass Brady. “I mean, he’s on pace. This is remarkable. If he goes out and does three in a row, in a salary-cap era, you can’t say much. I’m as big of a Tom Brady guy as there is, and the only difference is the longevity. Tom had like three careers.”

Edelman expanded on the GOAT comparison on Tuesday when he appeared on NBC Sports Boston’s “Patriots Talk Podcast.”

“The argument’s getting closer,” Edelman said. “I mean if he goes out and three-peats… this is the salary cap era, it’s tough to win consistently in this league. That’s something that no one’s ever done. So it’s going to get closer.

“But I think that the difference is, Tom had three different Hall of Fame careers and was able to perform at such a high level through so many different forms of adversity, whether it was someone murdering someone or some of the ‘gates’ that we went through, a suspension, it didn’t matter. He was able to perform at the highest level no matter what.

“Now, we haven’t seen any crazy adversity for this Kansas City Chiefs team. There’s going to be a time where Travis (Kelce) ain’t there. There’s going to be a time where Chris Jones ain’t going to be there. And then I think that’s when you start evaluating Patrick on if he’s going to get to where Tom’s at, but he’s well on his way.”

One area Mahomes will never be able to catch Brady — head-to-head in the playoffs. Brady’s Patriots and Buccaneers both defeated Mahomes’ Chiefs in the AFC Championship and Super Bowl, respectively.