Patrick Mahomes Isn't Fantasy Football QB1 Anymore

Mahomes upside is on a downturn.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

For a few years, Patrick Mahomes was the king of the NFL and Fantasy Football alike. While he still rules the roost until knocked off in real games, he's on a precipitous fall from grace in the fantasy realm.

At this point, he's no longer a QB1 and fantasy managers should consider benching him.

Mahomes failed to break 20 fantasy points (4-point TD) during the Chiefs' Week 3 win over the Falcons on Sunday, making it eight straight starts, dating back to last season, where he hasn't gone over 20 points.

Equally concerning when looking more broadly, Mahomes has scored more than 20 points only FOUR TIMES over his last 20 GAMES. That's a success rate of 20% over a large sample size. That's not QB1 material.

SI Fantasy insider Michael Fabiano explained why he doesn't think Mahomes is an elite fantasy player a few weeks ago. You can watch Fantasy Dirt with him and Lindsay Rhodes Monday-Friday and live on Sunday here: Apple: https://apple.co/4dNn7qM Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3YNj9KL

.@Michael_Fabiano says Patrick Mahomes is no longer an elite fantasy quarterback 👀

Listen to the @fantasydirtpod with Fabiano and @lindsay_rhodes on:
▶️ Apple: https://t.co/ZcBYNqlsBa
▶️ Spotify: https://t.co/8aFZY4LtRk pic.twitter.com/pPscdwPShY

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 6, 2024

This season, Mahomes ranks 12th amongst QBs in fantasy football, averaging 13.5 points per game. He was being drafted, on average, as the QB3 and being picked in the first three rounds. Three games into the season, Mahomes trails Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Derek Carr, Brock Purdy and even Geno Smith, who were all being drafted far behind him, or in Darnold and Smith's case, not at all in standard one-QB leagues.

The natural question becomes, should fantasy managers bench Mahomes? Fabs comes out with his weekly rankings on Wednesday, so that will be a great place to start answering that question. For now, I have Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud, Kyler Murray, Jayden Daniels, Anthony Richardson and Dak Prescott ranked ahead of Mahomes, especially this week against a Chargers team that will try and shorten the game and limit Chiefs possessions with a run-heavy approach.

It's hard to admit when you made a mistake over-drafting a player. It's even harder when that player is Patrick Mahomes, a man who scored over 400 fantasy points two years ago. But it's clear the Chiefs offense has changed drastically since then and Mahomes isn't putting up the same types of numbers he used to.

Mahomes is the No. 1 QB in the NFL still. He's just not a QB1 in fantasy football anymore.