Patrick Mahomes heads back to the film room on offseason day one

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes joined the media one more time on Monday — the last day of what can be considered the 2020 season. Mahomes and the Chiefs made their goal clear in March — to “run it back” and repeat as champions.

Unfortunately for Mahomes, the team came up one game short Sunday night, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-9, in Super Bowl LV. On Monday, it was back to the film room for the quarterback.

“I’m going to do whatever I can to look at the film and try to find ways to get better,” explained Mahomes when asked for his offseason plans. “With our offense and the success that we’ve had, when teams see the defensive plan that he had and how well it worked, they’re obviously going to try to do the same thing. Try to find ways to combat that and the evolution of our offense where we’re going to have to do better things and be more efficient. And that really goes with me in not always looking for the big play but just finding ways to move the ball down the field. And then just get back after it. You’ve got to prepare yourself and find ways to better yourself physically, mentally.”

Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles produced a fantastic game plan for the Chiefs that was much unlike how they went about it in Week 12, and there is a thought now that teams may try to replicate it. Mahomes wanted to get ahead of that on Monday.

Still, a principal factor in the game was Tampa Bay’s dominance of Kansas City’s makeshift offensive line, which allowed a Super Bowl record for QB pressures. As to be expected by now, there were no complaints from Mahomes.

He instead is deciding to look inward and — to use an Eric Bieniemyism — “control what he can control.”

“I thought I did a good job towards the end of the season of being more efficient,” said Mahomes. “Obviously didn’t do that in the Super Bowl, but I’m going to try to find ways to better myself that way. I mean just being more efficient, taking what’s there, especially with these teams playing such deep coverages against us, moving the ball downfield and it’s something that I kind of have to battle with because I have such an aggressive nature and want to have the big play. But as I watch the film and really study myself, I’ll have to get better at that so I can become a better quarterback at the end of the day.”

The lackluster performance as a team on the game’s biggest stage won’t soon be forgotten by Mahomes, who finished with 850 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions in the 2020 playoffs.

It took two years, four months and 23 days as a starter for the 2018 NFL MVP to lose his first pro game by more than one possession.

“It’ll definitely motivate you,” added Mahomes. “When you’re a competitor and you get so close to your ultimate goal and then you fall short, it’s something that will motivate you for the rest of your career. It was a bad feeling in that locker room after the game. You don’t want to have that feeling again and so luckily enough we’ll have a lot of the same guys back and we’ll obviously add new guys and we’ll set the tone from the beginning of the year, beginning of the offseason that we have to be better. We have to be better than this last year in order to go out there and win the Super Bowl.”

In the meantime, there are off-the-field matters to attend to.

“And I’m going to become a dad,” remembered Mahomes, “so I’ve got to work on becoming a better dad even though I haven’t become one yet.”