Patrick Mahomes is still inside the NFL’s top 20, but the number next to his name has plenty of people doing a double take.
The Chiefs quarterback came in at No. 18 on the league’s “Top 100 Players of 2026,” a spot that feels unusually low for a player who has spent most of his career near the top of the list. Mahomes was announced at No. 18 on Aug. 18, and the ranking reflects a 2025 season that was far from his usual standard. He missed three games with an injury, finished 6-8 as a starter, and posted career-low numbers in several major passing categories.
Even so, the reaction online was immediate. A lot of fans fixated on the gap between Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, and several questioned how the list was being judged at all.
One fan wrote, “Eighteen feels like the number they picked specifically to start an argument. Nobody agrees where these rankings actually sit and that is clearly the entire point of publishing them,” while another Jackson supporter said, “I was told the list was based off last season when Lamar was ranked 69th.”
A third fan added, “Lamar is 69 but Mahomes is 18 lmao nobody knows what this list is based on.”
Not everyone saw the ranking as an insult. Some fans pushed back and argued that voters should be looking at a player’s full body of work instead of letting one rough season carry too much weight. “Best QB in the sport at 18 I can’t,” one fan wrote.
Mahomes finished just behind Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, and this is the first time since he became a full-time starter that he has fallen out of the top 10. He had previously finished No. 1 in 2021 and 2023 and had been a regular fixture in the top five.
The Chiefs had three other players make the list as well: Creed Humphrey at No. 94, Travis Kelce at No. 79, and Chris Jones at No. 43.
The placement also puts Mahomes behind quarterbacks like Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, and Drake Maye, which only added to the surprise. Still, for Chiefs fans, the bigger point remains the same: list or no list, Mahomes is still the quarterback they want when the game is on the line. And now he has another spotlighted ranking to use as fuel when the 2026 season gets going.
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