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2-Time Super Bowl Champion Calls Out Pro Football Focus After Patrick Mahomes Slight
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- 2-Time Super Bowl Champion Calls Out Pro Football Focus After Patrick Mahomes Slight
As the son of a Hall of Famer and a two-time Super Bowl champion in his own right, we trust longtime Rams standout Chris Long 's input on Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes .
And while Long may not have all of the answers, he at least feels he knows better than Pro Football Focus. You'll understand, then, why Long found himself outraged when he saw PFF lists Mahomes as the sport's 13th-best quarterback during last Sunday's Lions-Chiefs game.
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"God forbid there's somebody watching the game who doesn't know who [expletive] Patrick Mahomes is," Long vented on his "Green Light" podcast. "They're going to be badly misguided, brother. Thirteenth best quarterback in the league?"
For the unfamiliar, NBC includes a player's PFF grade underneath their name when introducing each team's starting lineup. Seattle Seahawks veteran Sam Darnold leads all quarterbacks with a 93.7 PFF grade through six weeks, while Mahomes now ranks 18th of 58th with a 74.7 score.
"I want the PFF scores off the TV as bad as I want political ads off the television," Long said.
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What to Know About NBC and Pro Football Focus Grades
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is off to another strong startJay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
NBC has included Pro Football Focus grades in its player intro for several years now, largely because longtime "Sunday Night Football" color commentator Cris Collinsworth bought a stake in PFF over a decade ago.
Much like Wins Above Replacement in baseball, PFF grades focus far more on advanced analytics and data to determine how effective a player is. Mahomes' 11-2 TD-INT ratio understandably won't matter to professional evaluators as much as his career-low 64.8% completion percentage or underlying metrics that the casual fan likely won't spot or understand.
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Interestingly, Mahomes ranks fourth in ESPN's Total QBR , with his 76.1 grade trailing Indianapolis ' Daniel Jones (79.7), Dallas ' Dak Prescott (79.2), and Darnold (78.5). Even if Mahomes is still behind Darnold on that list, there's a significant difference between fourth and 18th.
Meanwhile, PFF considers Jones the league's 10th-best quarterback, yet they rank Prescott No. 3. How can a quarterback rank No. 1 on one list and No. 10 on another? Conventional wisdom dictates that they should be far closer.
Chris Long Also Defended Chiefs DT Derrick Nnadi
Pro Football Focus doesn't think highly of Kansas City Chiefs nose tackle Derrick NnadiJay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Mahomes' ranking wasn't the only one that Long took umbrage with while watching Sunday's Chiefs victory. At the time, PFF ranked Chiefs defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi 191st out of a possible 191 eligible interior defensive linemen.
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"If I [were] Nnadi, and maybe he earned it this year, but I would [expletive] sue," Long said. "I would be in Cris Collinsworth's backyard, dude."
Luckily for Collinsworth, he might not need to worry about seeing Nnadi in court soon. The three-time Super Bowl champion has moved up to 190th out of 192 defensive linemen.
The San Francisco 49ers host the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night, and we'll see which grades offend Long this time. At least Long won't see Falcons quarterback Michael Penix ranked above Mahomes; PFF lists the 2024 No. 8 pick as the 47th-best quarterback.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Oct 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
