Pro Football Network chief analyst and former ESPN host Trey Wingo joined the Arrowhead Pride Podcast Network on Thursday to talk all things Kansas City Chiefs. Among the items discussed was Super Bowl LV and whether or not that could impact Patrick Mahomes’ legacy as the potential greatest quarterback of all time.
“I’m not a ring counter,” noted Wingo. “I don’t need a ring to know that Dan Marino was one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play. I don’t need that. A ring is a team win. A team wins games. A team wins a championship — and I defy anybody to go watch that Super Bowl and say, ‘Yeah. Mahomes was the reason they lost.’
“My favorite clip coming out of [Super Bowl LV] was when they had all the wide receivers for the Bucs mic’d up, whenever Mahomes was on the field.”
Here is the clip Wingo is referring to:
Bucs receivers were amazed by Mahomes' magic act @CGtwelve_ | @MikeEvans13_ pic.twitter.com/HmKuEiVeYt
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 9, 2021
“Any other quarterback would have been sacked 15 times in that game,” he added. “And that leads me to another point. The Bucs were the better team. They were. The Chiefs were the first team in the Super Bowl era to have two different starting tackles Week 1 and also in the Super Bowl. That had never happened before, OK? So Vita Vea came back and the entire offensive line for the Chiefs was banged up. It was a disaster. It was good enough to get through everybody else, but those Bucs are a real physical football team.”
Wingo continued in his Mahomes praise.
“There’s no part of me that looks at Mahomes’ legacy and says it’s going to be altered by that game... the best Super Bowl Tom Brady ever played, he lost. It was the Super Bowl to the Eagles — LII... He threw for 300 yards in the first half... he statistically had his best game ever and they lost.”
Brady finished with more than 500 passing yards and the three touchdowns in the loss to Nick Foles and the Eagles. Patriots came back to beat the Chiefs in the AFC title game and the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl the year following.
After Brady’s title with the Bucs, he now has seven Super Bowls to his name.
“If someone wants to say Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback or is going to be the greatest quarterback of all time, I can’t argue with that,” acknowledge Wingo. “It’s hard to get around that. But if you’re asking me who has the skill set to play it better and play it a higher level, right now, to me, that would be Patrick Mahomes.”
At this writing, Mahomes remains the MVP favorite ahead of the 2021-22 NFL season. Wingo believes that is something everybody should get used to.
“I think every year he is playing, he’s the prohibitive favorite to start as the league MVP — as long as that team is around him.”
Wingo also discussed the quarterback transition from Alex Smith, the Chiefs’ 2021 draft class and his expectations for the season on the full episode, which you can listen to below.