Let the protests begin.
Patrick Mahomes has taken a hit in the NFL’s Top 100 for 2026, landing at No. 18 overall after sitting at No. 5 a year ago. That’s a drop of 13 spots, and for a player who has lived near the top of these rankings since becoming a starter, it’s a jarring slide.
The Chiefs themselves made sure 2025 was a season nobody in Kansas City wants to revisit. The team won six total games, and Mahomes was forced out in Week 14 with a knee injury that required immediate surgery to repair multiple torn ligaments.
His numbers reflected the rough year: 22 passing touchdowns, 3,587 passing yards and an 89.6 passer rating, all career lows. He also missed the Pro Bowl for the first time.
On paper, that kind of production explains why he dropped. But that’s exactly where the debate starts.
A quarterback with those numbers on a six-win team would normally disappear from this kind of list in a hurry. Mahomes is still there because voters aren’t just reacting to the stat line.
They’re weighing the player, the resume and the reality that his place in the league has never been about one bad season.
That tension is what makes the No. 18 slot feel so strange. The ranking acknowledges a rough year while still nodding to Mahomes’ history as one of the league’s defining quarterbacks.
But it also creates an awkward middle ground: if the list is supposed to reflect the best players in football right now, it’s hard to square Mahomes sitting outside the top tier. If it’s purely about last season, then his presence at all becomes the issue.
The Chiefs highlighted the ranking themselves, posting that “The no. 18 spot belongs to no. 15 ⏰” after the reveal. That little jab fits the larger problem here.
There were surely 17 players who had better seasons in 2025. The tougher question is whether there are 17 better football players than Mahomes entering 2026.
That’s the knot the NFL’s Top 100 has tied itself into. Mahomes’ placement feels like an attempt to split the difference between a down year and a still-dominant career. In the process, the list ends up looking like it’s trying to honor him and rank him at the same time, and those two things don’t quite line up.
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Even with those moves, one decision still hangs over the roster picture because the team appears open to exploring trade possibilities at a couple of spots. Kansas City has enough moving parts that a deal could alter both the starting lineup and the bench behind it, and the fact that multiple names are still being discussed suggests the front office is not done sorting out where its best value sits. [Read more 🡒]
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Simmons path to this point has already included a torn patellar tendon and a wrist injury, so the Chiefs knew they were betting on both talent and durability when they made him a premium selection. For now, the concern is less about a long-term alarm and more about keeping the line intact enough to get through camp with some continuity. Kansas City can afford patience in August, but every missed rep around Mahomes still feels a little more significant than it should. [Read more 🡒]