NFL: Mahomes and Hurts show there’s more than one way to a Super Bowl

NEW YORK – The Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Hurts have competed against each other from afar all season, going back and forth as the favourite for the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.

On Sunday, they will play in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona, the first time in league history that black quarterbacks will face each other in the championship game.

Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, said in a news conference on Wednesday that it was “probably for all the wrong reasons” that this moment took more than half a century to arrive.

Among them is the long-held belief among some coaches and executives that most black quarterbacks operate with an unsustainable run-first style.

“You still see the stereotypes whenever guys come out to the draft,” said Mahomes, who claimed his second MVP award on Thursday. “I think it just takes us to keep talking about it honestly, to be on a platform like this and for guys like me and Jalen to be in this game and show that we can have consistent success every single year.”

Mahomes and Hurts were the league’s two best quarterbacks this season, dominating opposing defences in vastly disparate ways. That they approach playing the game’s most important position so differently is further proof that black quarterbacks can succeed with whichever style they choose.

“That four-year-old, five-year-old kid back in Houston, back in Philly, back in Texas, Louisiana, wherever across the world, regardless of what someone may say or have an opinion about you... ‘You can do it. You can do it, too’,” Hurts said. He added: “We just want to inspire the next people.”

Mahomes and Hurts are nearly identical physically. At 1.85m and 101kg, Hurts is 2.54cm shorter and 0.9kg lighter than Mahomes.

But a glance at the two players on game days shows a contrasting view. Hurts is noticeably bulkier than Mahomes, which helps him absorb more punishment on the running plays that fuel the Eagles’ offence. He is built like a powerlifter – which he was in high school – and a video shows him squatting over 272kg during his final year of college at Oklahoma.

Hurts’ lower body strength shone this season when the Eagles ran their popular quarterback sneak, which almost always converted short-yardage distances for first downs or scored a touchdown in goal-line situations. Flimsy tackle attempts rarely stop him when he breaks from the pocket on scrambles and long runs.

His dual-threat nature allows him to thrive in whichever task the Eagles need from him on game days. The 24-year-old rushed for 157 yards in a Week 12 win over Green Bay and threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns in a win over the Tennessee Titans the following week.

“He’s always been a very durable player, so he’s been able to run enough to be effective,” Lincoln Riley, who was Hurts’ coach at Oklahoma and who is now the coach at Southern California, said in an interview.

Kansas City, by contrast, are not as balanced as the Eagles. They ranked first in the league in passing yards per game (297.8) but just 20th out of the 32 teams in rushing yards (115.9).

Mahomes threw for more yards in the AFC championship game against the Cincinnati Bengals (326) on an injured ankle than Hurts passed for in the Eagles’ two play-off games (275). Kansas City called just six designed runs for Mahomes that totalled 20 yards during the regular season, according to Next Gen Stats.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid – who took the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2005 before he was fired following the 2012 season – has rarely called for quarterback sneaks after Mahomes dislocated a kneecap in 2019, forcing him to miss two games.

The 27-year-old rushed for 358 yards and four touchdowns this season on 61 carries. When he runs, he is often escaping pressure or trying to extend a play.

“It’s just his instincts,” said Matt Nagy, the team’s quarterbacks coach. “He knows, he just plays the game. He knows when to do it.”

Mahomes’ arm strength had paired perfectly with speedy receiver Tyreek Hill. Together, they picked apart defences with downfield pass plays.

But Kansas City traded Hill to Miami last March and added receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the off-season. Neither has Hill’s quickness and, though Mahomes still had his favourite target, tight end Travis Kelce, he needed to adapt to a new supporting cast.

Without Hill, gone was the barrage of deep passes that the Chiefs were known for.

Only eight per cent of Mahomes’ pass attempts this season travelled more than 20 yards through the air, the fewest of his career, according to Next Gen Stats. But he still led the league in passing touchdowns (41) and yards (5,250), and the team’s offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, praised Mahomes for his “his developmental process at just finding guys”.

He said: “It’s made him a better quarterback because he has become more diverse and more efficient with the football.”

Whether it is Mahomes’ arm and ability to adjust while being efficient or Hurts’ dual-threat marvels, both are bypassing decades-long stereotypes about what a black quarterback in the NFL is supposed to be.

As much as Sunday’s game will be about winning a championship, it will also be a statement to the world about what black players can do at quarterback. NYTIMES, REUTERS