Patrick Mahomes clarifies 20-0 goal for Chiefs; Andy Reid weighs in

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes made some national noise this week when he revealed to Bleacher Report that he had set his sights on a perfect 20-0 record for the team in the upcoming 2021 season. The interview took place in Hawaii at the 15 and the Mahomies Aloha Golf Classic over Memorial Day weekend.

Naturally, local Kansas City press asked the quarterback about the proclamation during his Zoom press conference on Thursday following Kansas City’s sixth OTA workout.

“I believe the question I was asked was what record that I would want to break,” clarified Mahomes. “To me, records don’t mean anything unless you’re winning that last game at the end of the season. To me, it’s about going in every single week with the mindset that we’re trying to win, we’re going to win. At the end of the day, whatever the record is, whether it’s 20-0 or whatever it is, you’re winning the last game of the season, then you’re going to be happy with whatever happened earlier in the season.”

Head coach Andy Reid, usually not one for season-long predictions or even weekly guarantees, admitted he caught wind of the quote.

“I saw the whole thing just by chance,” said Reid. “I normally don’t see those things, but I did see that one, and he was asked what would be a great challenge for him to work for, so 20-0 made sense. I mean, he wasn’t boasting about it, that’s not what he was doing. But he just said that would be a great challenge, which it would be. We’ve got a pretty stiff schedule and some great competition that we’re going to play against, so I felt like he was really saying, ‘Listen, we all need to get busy and work our tail off because of that.’”

Reid is right.

The Chiefs play the league’s 11th-toughest schedule and take on seven 2020 playoff teams throughout the new season, including five in the first seven games. After their bye in Week 12, they have three straight division matchups, including a short-rest game against the Chargers in Los Angeles on Thursday Night Football.

The only team to finish an NFL season undefeated was the 1972 Miami Dolphins — and they only had to play 14 regular-season games and three playoff games for 17-0. 2021 marks the first year of 17 regular-season games. No team went 19-0 under the old 16-game schedule.

Still, Mahomes knew what he was doing when he made the quote.

“I know I’m going to have to answer questions either way, so may as well answer questions about us winning football games,” he added with a smirk.