There are seven games in the books — and 10 more to go. While we may not be right at the halfway mark of the 2021 regular season, the Kansas City Chiefs are taking their bye week in Week 8, so it’s a good time to dish out some midseason awards.

The Arrowhead Pride writing staff members each had one vote for our seven midseason awards. There are 11 contributors, so there will be 11 votes tallied for each award. In this post, we’ll reveal our most valuable player to this point of the season.

QB PATRICK MAHOMES

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

VOTING: Patrick Mahomes (11)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the unanimous winner of this year’s Arrowhead Pride “Bye Week Team MVP” award. It’s probably the least surprising of all the awards.

While many other Chiefs — including Chris Jones, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Nick Bolton and Travis Kelce — have played well, there’s only one Patrick Mahomes, and he’s been reminding the league of his greatness on a regular basis thus far in 2022.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t the 2018 MVP version of Mahomes.

Mahomes has evolved and grown as a player in so many ways since his breakout campaign. The 2022 Mahomes is working within the new offense, spreading the ball around, incorporating new receivers, and proving that the Chiefs are a contender because of the guy under center. He’s been elite from within or outside the pocket and has added some new elements to his game — like the back-shoulder throw.

The season-to-date statistics are staggering. He’s leading the league in touchdowns, 20-plus yard plays, 40-plus yard plays, passing yards, first downs and most any of the other quarterback ratings and analytics in existence. Mahomes is also smashing all of the career-to-date records, like the highest winning percentage, wins when trailing by 10 points, touchdowns, yards, completions and wins in his first 70 starts.

Mahomes hasn’t been perfect this season, as he contributed to both losses when the team didn’t execute well but relied upon him to carry them to victory. But, isn’t that also part of the definition of an MVP? The one player most important to the team’s ability to win games?

Mahomes is again firmly in the conversation for NFL MVP, as well, and he’s proving that he can orchestrate the league’s best offense without wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

Mahomes will continue to break records and lead this team deep into the playoffs this season, as he’s on pace for another 5,000-yard and nearly 50-touchdown season. Enjoy watching the bye week MVP as he writes the script for the rest of the 2022 campaign and rewrites the record books.

It’s a great time to be a Chiefs fan, mainly because of Patrick Mahomes.