What makes this hilarious is that we finally got to see Patrick Mahomes experience the kind of offensive-line dysfunction Justin Herbert has been dealing with for nearly THREE straight seasons.
Weeks 14 & 15 last year were the first time Mahomes faced a pressure environment remotely comparable to what Herbert has grown accustomed to.
And what happened?
Mahomes:
19.0 passer rating → 62.0 passer rating
0 TD, 4 INT.
For two games, Mahomes had to operate in the exact kind of environment that Herbert has been expected to transcend for years.
And, remarkably, there wasn’t a QB in football who played worse over that stretch than Mahomes. That’s the part the discourse this yapping fanboy keeps conveniently stepping over.
Nobody is arguing that QB's are helpless. The point is that QB play is contextual. Protection, pressure, supporting cast, play-calling, all of it matters.
But if your argument is that elite QB's are supposed to “uplift their situation” regardless of circumstances, then you have to apply that standard consistently.
Because the moment Mahomes encountered the same structural problem Herbert has been living with, the “just elevate” theory suddenly became a lot less persuasive.
Selective memory is funny.
The issue was never whether environment matters.
It was whether you were willing to admit it matters when the QB in that environment isn’t the one you stan.
