Patrick Mahomes jokes NFL Network shouldn't overlay his 40-yard dash time during combine
As Patrick Mahomes becomes one of the faces of the NFL, the comparisons continue to roll in with each NFL Draft class. It’s no different this year ahead of the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, with Caleb Williams’ name coming up in the same breath as the Kansas City Chiefs star.
When the 40-yard dashes begin for the quarterbacks, though, Mahomes joked he wanted NFL Network to cut down on the comparisons in that instance. He ran a 4.8 at the 2017 combine, and he doesn’t want to see the other quarterbacks overlayed with that footage.
“As the combine starts this week! All i ask is that @nflnetwork doesn’t use my 40 overlay anymore,” Mahomes wrote, along with three crying laughing emojis.
Even despite his time in the 40, it’s safe to say it all worked out for Mahomes. He’s coming off his third Super Bowl victory after the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas earlier this month, and they’re showing no signs of slowing down.
But the comparisons between Williams and Mahomes continue to get louder as the combine gets underway. Of course, the former USC star won’t run in Indianapolis and will instead work out at his Pro Day – meaning Mahomes doesn’t have to see that overlay.
Looking at the numbers, though, it’s hard not to see similarities during their college careers.
Williams totaled nearly 5,000 total yards — 4,537 passing and 382 rushing — and 52 total touchdowns to win the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore. Seven years earlier, Mahomes was a sophomore at Texas Tech and put up very similar numbers. He threw for 4,653 yards and 36 touchdowns while adding 465 yards and 10 touchdowns in the running game.
Even Kliff Kingsbury has pointed out the similarities between Mahomes and Williams. He told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer about the comparisons between the two, and it adds to the hype around the consensus No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
“I’ve had no less an authority than Kliff Kingsbury say that to me on the record, that it’s eerie the similarities between the two of them,” Breer said on Kap and J-Hood on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. “Remember, he coached Mahomes and told everyone who would listen about Mahomes when Mahomes was coming out in 2017. So he’s had a year now with Caleb Williams, and he’ll tell anybody that there are a lot of similarities between what Patrick Mahomes was in 2017 and what Caleb Williams is in 2024.
“It doesn’t mean that, you know, seven years from now that Caleb Williams is going to have won two Super Bowls, maybe be on the precipice of a third and all that. But that’s the talent level we’re talking about.”