CLEVELAND, OH – With roughly two-plus months before the 2021 NFL Draft is held in Cleveland, OH one of the biggest names in the draft in former BYU quarterback Zach Wilson is already being compared to arguably the game’s best signal caller in Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes, who many consider the next G.O.A.T. in-waiting once newly minted seven-time Super Bowl champion in Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, Tom Brady retires, was last seen running for his proverbial life in a 31-9 thumping in Super Bowl LV.
In his three years in the NFL, Mahomes has been named NFL MVP, Super Bowl MVP and signed the largest pro sports contract in North American sports history at ten years and $503 million. For anyone to even be mentioned in the same breath as the former 15th overall pick out of Texas Tech is not only misleading, but an insult to the man who loves putting ketchup on steak.
While I don’t agree with his choice of condiments being used on food, Mahomes is just a special talent that comes along once in a generation, as he has next-level agility, elusiveness, the uncanny ability to extend plays from inside and outside the pocket, throw from any angle and the killer mentality of an assassin in the final two minutes.
Not to completely dismiss some of the comparisons of Wilson to Mahomes, as the 6’3 209-pound Draper, UT native has shown similar Mahomes-like passing for 3,692 yards, 33 touchdowns and three interceptions out in Provo for the Cougars.
It doesn’t help that his well-documented off-season workouts with former NFL and BYU alum, John Beck at his 3DQB training camp down in Huntington Beach, really helped take his game to the next level.
In what would be his last game for the Cougars, Wilson put on a passing clinic in going 26-34 for 425 yards in a 49-23 romp over UCF in the Boca Raton Bowl. If his impressive performance against the Knights was his swan song, then his equally admirable 19-30, 240-yard performance in a narrow 22-17 loss to then-undefeated No.18 Coastal Carolina—where his final pass completion to Dax Milne was one yard short—in a instant classic.
While I personally think that the Mahomes comparison is nothing but pure hype, I see a slightly taller and just as mobile and accurate Aaron Rodgers in the making, in part to his uncanny accuracy both in the packet and on the move.
While some have Wilson going as high as No.2 to the New York Jets, the perfect fir for Wilson and his skill set would be Atlanta at No.4, as they already have former NFL MVP Matt Ryan under center, and he’d have a chance to sit and learn under a veteran, instead of being pressed into action his rookie year in New York, whose fans and media are notoriously harsh towards rookies.
Wilson has both the physical and mental intangibles to be a borderline elite starter in the year for leagues to come in his own right. But in regards to being called a “poor mans Mahomes” or “the next Patrick Mahomes” that talk needs to stop now before it snowballs into something entirely different and gets out of control.