Mahomes becomes fastest to 25,000 career yards

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes became the fastest NFL quarterback to reach 25,000 career passing yards, and he got there on Sunday in a fitting manner.

The Chiefs signal-caller went over the milestone on one of his longest passes of the day, a 37-yard throw to Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the third quarter of Kansas City‘s 41-10 win over the Chicago Bears at Arrowhead Stadium.

“It really is cool,” Mahomes said. “Doing it at Arrowhead … it’s a tremendous honor to be a part of this organization and be able to do stuff like that at this stadium. It’ll be stuff I remember the rest of my life.”

Mahomes needed 83 games to get to 25,000 yards. Matthew Stafford had been the fastest QB to 25,000 yards, needing 90 games to do it. Mahomes for a couple of moments late in the first half appeared he might not get to the milestone on Sunday. He had an ankle rolled on by Bears defensive lineman Yannick Ngakoue and briefly was hobbled by the injury.

Mahomes stayed in the game until finishing his only drive of the second half with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce. That play put the Chiefs ahead 41-0, and Mahomes said he didn’t exit the game because of the injury. He suffered a high ankle sprain in last year’s divisional round playoff win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, though he played in the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.

“I would’ve been fine to play the rest of the game,” he said. “If anything, it kind of scared me more just being that ankle.

“We taped it up and then I was able to go.”

The Chiefs for the first time this season resembled the team that led the NFL in scoring last year. They had 312 yards in the first half and led 34-0.

Mahomes finished 24-of-33 passing for 272 yards and three touchdowns.

“It always feels good to get the whole offense going,” he said. “The first two weeks, we just have been out of rhythm. We haven’t got drives and sustained drives going, and so just to not have those killer penalties and to get the offense moving in the right direction, then all the other stuff kind of comes with it. So I was proud of the guys today. Still little things here and there we can tweak, but it was a step in the right direction.”

Mahomes defended offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor, who was called twice for lining up off the line of scrimmage. The Bears declined one of the penalties, but the other cost the Chiefs a long touchdown pass.

Taylor was penalized five times in last week’s game against the Jaguars.

“It’s wild to me,” Mahomes said. “When you go back and look [at the penalty calls] and both [Chiefs’ tackles] are in the exact same spot, I don’t understand it. It’s hard because he’s playing great football and he’s getting these penalties thrown on him, and I know it’s hard to officiate. But I watch a lot of tape, and he’s no deeper than any other tackle in the league.

“There are other guys that are even further back than he is, so it’s crazy to see, and hopefully it kind of calms down as the season goes on. He’s making adjustments, and it seems like even with his adjustments they’re not good enough.”

The Chiefs briefly removed Taylor from the game, as they did against the Jaguars. But coach Andy Reid said this time it was because of injury. He said Taylor had been hit in the mouth.