Super Bowl 2025: What Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts have taught us about the quarter-tree this season

New Orleans – Wednesdays and Thursdays, Patrick Mahomes enters the quarter of Kansas City Chiefs around 6:30 am

He pulls his headphones on his ears, his hooded sweatshirt on the headphones.

A tablet and a match plan rest on the table in front of him. On the tablet, Mahomes writes. And he writes. And he writes.

“The first two hours at the start of the day, no one really talks to him,” the Chiefs Chris Oladokun chiefs told Yahoo Sports. “He is locked up.”

The routine dates back to years now. For about two hours to start on Wednesday, he will copy on his tablet with each game call and each screening note. A week, he will write which nickel his opponent regularly reveals the third; Another, he will scribble if the team acts the coverage of the neighborhoods in third. Mahomes will detail short-yard plans and goal line tactics. Thursday, with new wrinkles in the match plan, he will write everything again.

Part of the routine reflects the coherent obsession that large quarters often demonstrate. A highly cerebral position requires the recognition of models and the rapid treatment of the myriad of factors. In the Super Bowl Lix on Sunday, Mahomes and his counterpart of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jalen Hurts, must not only recognize their clues in time to succeed individually, but also to direct the cast of players around them.

Another reason for the routine: the quarterrier requires much more than the strength of the arms and the passage of the field. Production and efficiency are important. But these are the results rather than the process to obtain the results. And maybe they are not the only results that the quarters contribute to the game.

After a season when the production of overcoming Mahomes and Hurts has dropped, Yahoo Sports decided to understand: did the chefs and the eagles reach the Super Bowl with a rear quarter playing less efficiently … or simply passing less, and Sometimes less productive, only one of several measures by which judge a quarter-rear?

Put another way: how much more than the pass is the position of the quarterrier?

As the defenses evolve and the game plans represent different lessons for victory, players, coaches and leaders say that there is more in position than footage and production. Each quarter-back refocused the objective through which they deem their performance.

“It’s about winning at the end of the day – no matter how it goes,” said Mahomes. “When I was younger, I wanted to play a big game on the whole game and I obviously want to do that, but each time the defense plays well or that the offensive (is) in difficulty a little, it is To bring us back in rhythm, bring us back to the tempo so that the big games come to us and that we do not try to force it. »»

Hurts agrees. He became accustomed to a team from Philadelphia who called a game of passes on a bass league of 44.7% of the first and second trials during the regular season, according to next generation statistics. Did he blow the head coach Nick Sirianni and the media criticisms sometimes? Of course. But the Eagles season is reaching out.

“In the end, it is everyone on the same wavelength, made up of everything it takes to do this this week,” said Hurts. “Accept that victory seems different to different seasons – in different games.”

What Mahomes and Hurts make data from you will not tell you

The Eagles have not produced a play of hard or even average passes this season. They ranked the last dead in temporary attempts and the four down in the yards by the pass.

Hurts has an average of 193.5 yards per game per game per regular season, its lowest in four years. Nineteen quarters launched more than its 18 touches passers-by.

And yet, on the way to the title NFC, Hurts rushed to 14 affected in the regular season and four games in the playoffs. He escaped with a touch on the ground of 40 yards on the first training of a victory of the divisional tour against the Rams.

His official quarter data does not reflect any of this. But is not any The way he produces a quarter-back form by definition, because it is a quarter of a quarter? The execution of the racing options passes and constantly threatening the defenses to attract the attention of the star Saquon Barkley is an integral part of how Hurts plays the position.

“As much as you can use it, it gives the possibility to play essentially a man on defense,” said Yahoo Sports, “which is essential at this stage,” which is essential at this stage, because they have declared to Yahoo Sports. Re so far ahead of us in certain areas defensively that this is where we sometimes get this additional step. »»

Mahomes, on the AFC side, has passed more often and more productive than injured this season. But his 245.5 yards per game per match per game are also the lowest in Mahomas’ career, his 26 touched passers -by with the least of his seven years as a starter – and almost half of his career in the career of 50 in 2018.

He launches, but often more to make a racing game than burning deep defenders. Mahomes has targeted passes behind the melee line on a career summit of 26.9% of its attempts this season, the second highest rate of the NFL.

He is increasingly willing to rush, rushing for two affected in a 32-29 AFC victory over the Buffalo Bills. The coaches and his teammates say that Mahoma mobility is exploiting to move in the pocket as well as to escape this threatening as significantly as his arm talent.

“There are times when it doesn’t look like what you may think,” said chiefing quarter coach David Girardi in Yahoo Sports. “And there are many times these d-lines in this league are great. So being able to launch when your feet are not necessarily placed in the optimal position to be launched.

“Use your legs when you need it.”

Chiefs and Eagles dictate similar thresholds for the risk taking of their quarters, the director general of Philadelphia, Howie Roseman, preferring that injuries have the tash push only to convert the first stockings and the affected. Mahomes chose his moments to move at the start of the season, but made a desire to rush despite an ankle injury in the victory of the Chiefs over the Texans of Houston.

Faced with the second and 8 with 6:34 to play in the first quarter, Mahomes spotted a way in the field and ran 15 yards in the heart of Houston’s defense for the first score of the match. Chiefs have never lost their lead.

“I felt like I was giving a tone to whom he is from the point of view of tenacity because it was then that he had his ankle (injury),” said Girardi. “To enter the match early and show that he was always ready to run and use his legs and be a threat in this way (shows) this competitiveness that he will do everything you need.”

Which quarter-arre will reach the Super Bowl victory?

What will do to Mahomas or Hurts to raise his team to victory on Sunday? Each quarter-arre will undoubtedly face the best defensive front he has seen this season.

The Eagles transformed their defense under the Coordinator Vic Fangio to become the second most score defense of 17.8 points per game, also allowing the fourth plus more yards per game per match at 6.22.

The defense of the chiefs was fourth this season with 19.2 points authorized, but 13th with 6.54 yards per passage per play. Their precipitated defense was stouter.

Each quarter-back should be wary of a defensive platform disturbing the pocket, from Chris Jones of Kansas City to Eagles Pro Bowler Jalen Carter.

They will have to keep their eyes raised and their legs ready. They must be ready to anticipate their targets and release before their protection is beaten, sometimes modifying the routes according to the lever or call in a motion. The Eagles quarter-Arrière, Tanner McKee, calls them “10-level games” for the degree of detail.

Hurts and Mahomes will have to Haleter – Be game managers. Consider this as a compliment.

“You cannot put defense in bad places and make sure you are never too high, never too low,” said assistant coach of Chiefs Dan Williams in Yahoo Sports. “Besides everything you have to do when the game starts, there is also before the game. So being a game manager is definitely a good thing. »»

Managing the game and emerging with a victory, it will replace the launch for 300 yards or the launch of four affected in the mind of each quarter-Arrière. Impact of Hurts and Mahomes, and in particular their quarter The impact will extend beyond linear measures.

Mahomes will aim to become the first quarter of a quarter of a triple champion in title of the Super Bowl; Hurts will seek to win his first Lombardi trophy after undoubtedly having surpassed Mahomas in a defeat on the biggest scene two years ago.

Neither is opposed to lighting it with his arm. But they will not judge their impact on the explosive games against the more and more alone defenses, nor their sporting contributions on what their arms does alone.

Mahoma sessions, in the middle of the morning, in writing, but no longer. He does not memorize for his arm. It memorizes because the quarterrier requires more.

“It’s just about winning the football match and in the end, that’s the ultimate goal,” said Mahomes. “And that’s what I try to do, especially in this part of my career.

“Even if the statistics might not be as flashy as in my first year, we have won a lot of football matches and I am proud of it.”