Super Bowl 2024: Patrick Mahomes v Tom Brady - Can Chiefs quarterback be the new GOAT?

Tom Brady is universally known as the GOAT (greatest of all time) in NFL circles. With seven Super Bowl wins from his illustrious 23 years in the sport, he set standards and records that will never be beaten.

Or so we thought.

Then along came Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes who, at 28, will appear in his fourth Super Bowl on Sunday at the end of just his seventh season in the league - and if he wins he will match the three rings Brady had in his collection after his first seven campaigns.

Mahomes has also built up the same aura of invincibility and inevitability that Brady had, leading a Chiefs team to a fourth Super Bowl in five years and the kind of dominance not seen in the league since Brady himself led the all-powerful New England Patriots.

And in some statistical areas, Mahomes is already ahead of Brady, so the question has to be asked: can he chase down the GOAT?

Both quarterbacks only played one game in their first year in the league, but in the following six seasons success has flowed - and Mahomes has actually eclipsed Brady in some areas.

Brady had an incredible start, winning the Super Bowl three times in his first four years as a starter, but Mahomes will have appeared in more of the big games with four in his first six full seasons - which in itself is incredible.

Also incredible is the fact Mahomes has made the AFC Championship, the game before the Super Bowl, in all six of those seasons, and with Brady missing the play-offs once it means Mahomes (14) has more play-off wins than Brady (12) managed over the same period.

So he is actually delivering more often than Brady did in his first half-dozen campaigns - and ironically it could have been more had Brady not beaten Mahomes in both their play-off meetings, and AFC title game with the Patriots and a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

If you widen it out to the regular season, Mahomes has more league MVPs (2-0) than Brady and also dominates the stats between the two over the 96 games he has played so far for the Chiefs - in terms of passing yards, touchdowns and, most crucially, wins.

There is a long way to go of course, but Mahomes is well on track to topple some of Tom Terrific's incredible statistical records - which in part define his GOAT status - the big question is how long he can keep it going.

Mahomes has studied Brady and spoken to him a lot about his incredible longevity, and has said he wants to emulate his lengthy career - but that would be just one area of similarity.

This season above all others Mahomes has been most Brady-like. With a bunch of receivers who led the league in dropped catches, the Chiefs defence had to do a lot of the heavy lifting but come play-off time Mahomes took over.

He has a similar link-up with tight end Travis Kelce that Brady had with Rob Gronkowski, and for the first time in his career Mahomes had to go on the road to make the Super Bowl - winning in Buffalo and Baltimore and relishing playing the visiting villain.

But above all else it's that aura of invincibility that does funny things on the opposition sideline, especially in big play-off games.

Teams try too much, think too hard about not letting a Mahomes or Brady back on the field for any length of time that it skews their gameplan and alters their thinking - that intangible x-factor is often worth a touchdown lead on the scoreboard. And Mahomes has got it.

Buffalo's Josh Allen was billed as the big rival, but Mahomes is now 3-0 in play-off meetings, and while Lamar Jackson is a league MVP his play-off results remain modest at best.

Mahomes has only lost three play-off games, and two of those were against Brady. The GOAT conversation would have come up much sooner but for those, and now Brady is long gone.

Cincinnati Bengals' Joe Burrow is the only other quarterback with a play-off win over Mahomes on his CV, and he's also the most Brady-like in his style of play - but injuries have limited him and that's a red flag for the future.

The likes of Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy play in the other conference and can only meet Mahomes on play-off football in the Super Bowl, and if the San Francisco 49ers fail to get it done on Sunday, his legend will grow that little bit stronger.

First and foremost, stay healthy. Mahomes has done a pretty good job of that so far and with protecting the quarterbacks being a focus of rule changes than he has every chance.

Winning back-to-back Super Bowls would help, as the Chiefs will have their down years especially as 65-year-old head coach Andy Reid will not go on forever - and Brady had Bill Belichick by his side for 20 years.

Mahomes has shown a bit more consistency getting close to and into Super Bowls, but even if he had another six years as dominant as the previous six he would still be trailing Brady's seven rings.

There's GOAT potential in Mahomes, that is for sure, and the way he plays the game is a lot more eye-catching than Brady ever was, but he will have to keep that going for a generation to really challenge for the title of the greatest of all time.

A win on Sunday in Las Vegas would be a great way to start.