Patrick Mahomes talks Tom Brady, how long he wants to play and his 2022 focus point

Yahoo! Finance’s Brian Sozzi recently had the chance to sit down with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to discuss some of the shrewd business moves he has made over the past year. But before Sozzi and Mahomes dove into a conversation about his budding “business empire,” the two talked a little football.

After asking Mahomes for his thoughts on the new playoff overtime rules (more on that from John Dixon here), Sozzi wanted to know how the quarterback felt about the short-lived retirement of one of his Super Bowl foes: Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

“I don’t think it even really [sunk] in that he was retired before he was coming back,” Mahomes told Sozzi. “I was having the wedding going on and all that different type of stuff, so before I even realized he retired, he was back, and I think that’s how Tom has always been. Until I see that there’s an NFL game played, and he is not in the league, I don’t think I’ll ever truly believe he’s retired.”

Mahomes and the Chiefs will take on Brady and the Bucs on the road during the 2022 season, and some believe that may take place in Munich, Germany, rather than in Tampa. That last part remains to be seen.

The 26 year old still looks at the 44 year old as somebody he’d like to shape his own career arc after.

“I want to play as long as they’ll let me,” said Mahomes. “I know that will take me taking care of me body, me continuing to build my family the right way and making sure those relationships are always great before football, and I think Tom’s done that in the right way. You can see how close he is with his family, but as well, how much he gives to football every single day. It’s a great model. If you want to play for a long time and have a lot of success, you got to do a lot of the same things that he’s done, taking care of his body on and off the field.”

Mahomes wasn’t directly asked about the Chiefs trading Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins during the 12-minute interview, but his answer regarding more than 10 quarterbacks jumping from team to team this offseason would likely fit how he’s feeling.

The league as a whole is going through quite a shift, as players begin to dictate where they will suit up next more than ever before.

“I think it’s how sports have transitioned over these last few years,” said Mahomes. “You look at basketball, you look at baseball. A lot of stars are going to different teams, and guys are trying to find the best opportunity for themselves and the best opportunities for those teams to try to win. At the end of the day, that's what you want to do: you want to have success for yourself, obviously, but you want to have success on a team. I think guys are trying to get to the best position for themselves for those two things and there’s a lot more mobility. You can win and you can be marketable and you can do all that different type of stuff everywhere. I think guys are just trying to find the best opportunities to go out there, win and have success on the football field.”

Mahomes then explained what he took away from the 2021 season, one that ended in an overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship at Arrowhead Stadium.

“We battled through a lot of adversity this year,” he said. “We started off not the way we wanted to, we found a way to catch a groove, and then we got to the AFC Championship game but we didn’t get to the Super Bowl. That’s always our goal — to get to the Super Bowl and win it. You got to learn from the mistakes you made throughout the season, you got to take away the positives that you did and try to be better the next year. Everybody’s getting better, especially in our division, so for us, we have to go out there and try to be better than we’ve ever been and try to give ourselves another chance to compete for a Super Bowl.”

Just as he has in previous offseasons, Mahomes said he is concentrating on his game within the pocket as he prepares for the 2022 campaign.

“I feel like I’ve always been able to make plays happen outside of the pocket, but defenses know that — they’ve had a lot of tape on me just like I’ve watched tape on them — and they’re trying to do stuff to put me in bad situations and not let me get outside the pocket and make things happen.

“I have to be able to continue to get better from within the pocket, getting the ball out of my hands, taking what’s there when defense is playing these real deep coverages against me, and hopefully make positive plays happen that will help our team win football games.”

Mahomes showed great progress in that regard from midseason all the way to about halfway through the AFC Title Game, when there seemed to be a grand reversion.

He will have the entire offseason ahead to get his mind right, amid rumblings that Andy Reid and the Chiefs will be expected to unveil a new-look offense come September.