Las Vegas Raiders may benefit from Patrick Mahomes deal

Las Vegas Raiders may benefit from Patrick Mahomes deal

What does all this mean for the Raiders?

There is no such thing as a sure thing in the NFL, so even though the Chiefs and Mahomes are the odds-on favorites to win the division and repeat as champions, anything can happen between now and December. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl after rolling through the back half of their schedule, but were inches away from a lost season had Mahomes’ knee injury been more serious.

So even though the Raiders may be well behind the Chiefs in terms of talent in 2020, that is no guarantee that the standings will play out in the same way. Beyond 2020, that massive contract may be what holds back the Chiefs from signing an impact free agent, and a couple years of bad drafts could force them to rebuild around Mahomes for some time.

We have seen great organizations like the Steelers and Packers struggle to build good teams around their Hall of Fame quarterbacks so having one in place is no guarantee for success. Injuries aside, not giving a top-tier quarterback the right weapons or a defense that can slow down the opposition can just as easily derail a season and turn a Super Bowl win in to a Wild Card defeat.

The Chiefs may seem poised to own the AFC West for the next decade with Mahomes and Andy Reid at the helm, but as we all know, things change quickly in the NFL. Aside from the Patriots and Brady, even the best quarterbacks don’t have a stranglehold on their divisions. The Packers have won their division six times since 2010, the Steelers four times, the Saints four times, and the Seahawks three times since Russell Wilson’s rookie season in 2012.

The Raiders and their fans have plenty of reasons to be optimistic even with the news of Mahomes’ extension dominating the news cycle this week. NFL games are not won by one player, even one as talented as Mahomes, and as the old saying goes, “on any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team”.