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Kyle Shanahan and Nick Bosa Explain What Makes Patrick Mahomes Great

The 49ers clearly love their starting quarterback, but even they realize he's no Mahomes.

Grant Cohn

Oct 7, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) is interviewed after defeating the New Orleans Saints at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Oct 7, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) is interviewed after defeating the New Orleans Saints at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- Neither Kyle Shanahan nor Nick Bosa ever has beaten Patrick Mahomes. Bosa is 0-3 against him and Shanahan is 0-4.

So I asked them on Wednesday what makes Mahomes the best. I figured those two aought to know. Here's what they said.

ME: The numbers say Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is having a down-season by his standards. What are you seeing from him in particular?

SHANAHAN: “I think everyone says down-year just because their numbers aren't just crazy, but Pat is as good as it gets. He's been as good as it gets since the first year that he got to play. All their games, I think except for one, have come down to the last possession and he's as good as anyone in that last possession. Their running numbers aren't quite what they were last year. Their redzone isn't real high. So I think that equates to numbers, but Pat is Pat and he's as good as it gets and I don't see that changing at all."

ME: What makes Patrick Mahomes the best quarterback in the league?

BOSA: "His arm strength. He's able to get the ball far distances really fast so you don't need that much separation. And then the way he creates plays, he likes to pump fake people and make them miss and run for first downs when you need them. His running ability is underrated. He's stout so he's tough to bring down, and he makes good decisions."

MY TAKE ON THEIR TAKES: It's interesting that Shanahan mentioned Mahomes' brilliance at the end of close games. Shanahan recently has come under fire for winning just 37.8 percent of one-score games as a head coach. I'm guessing he would blame his quarterbacks for that statistic.

In addition, it's interesting that the first thing Bosa praised about Mahomes is his arm strength, something Brock Purdy simply does not possess.

The 49ers clearly love their starting quarterback, but even they realize he's no Mahomes.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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