Patrick Mahomes has dominated the AFC over the last decade, beating Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow a combined six times in the postseason.
Despite one Super Bowl appearance between Jackson, Allen and Burrow, the three quarterbacks have stacked strong resumes— they just have to get past Mahomes.
Here are each of the QB’s resumes:
- Mahomes: 3x Super Bowl champion, 2x MVP
- Jackson: 1x AFCCG appearance, 2x MVP
- Allen: 2x AFCCG appearance, 1x MVP
- Burrow: 2x AFCCG, 1x Super Bowl appearance
Mahomes has beaten Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen the past 3 seasons to make the Super Bowl.
He is 6-1 vs those three in the playoffs.
He has no equal. pic.twitter.com/u1Vu5W3kq6
— Chris (@chiefs_outsider) January 27, 2025
Jackson has a winning record every season and has made the playoffs every year that he finishes the regular season healthy.
Post-rookie year, Allen has a winning record and made the playoffs every year.
Post-rookie year, Burrow has a winning record every year that he finished the regular season healthy. The year he missed the playoffs and finished the regular season healthy, he led the league in passing yards and touchdown passes.
Lamar Jackson’s playoff losses
2018 – Wild Card exit vs. Chargers
Give the Los Angeles Chargers credit. Their game plan focused on playing seven or eight secondary players to put faster defenders on the field to contain Jackson, and surely enough, they throttled Jackson.
2019 – Divisional Round exit vs. Titans
Jackson also had over 500 yards from scrimmage. Regardless of “garbage time” or playing from behind, 500 yards in a playoff game is impressive.
2019: Titans
A first round bye can do 1 of 2 things: rejuvenate or cause rust.
Unfortunately, Ravens went into this game out of sync. Titans had their way with defense while detrimental miscues continuously killed any momentum offense had. Drops, failed conversations, and more. pic.twitter.com/cVZgbsNSQX
— GOWIE (@DaKidGowie) March 21, 2023
It didn’t help Jackson when there were six drop passes.
2020 – Divisional Round exit vs. Bills
Jackson exited early with a concussion. Case closed.
2023 – AFCCG exit vs. Chiefs
This was Jackson’s third playoff loss at home. His defense held the Chiefs to 17 points and he had an interception thrown into double coverage towards the end zone.
2024 – Divisional Round exit vs. Bills
Jackson threw another interception into double coverage and lost the football on another play.
Unfortunately, his best weapon for his entire career, Mark Andrews, also had a fumble and dropped the game-tying two-point conversion.
Mark Andrews 2-point conversion drop will haunt Ravens fans for years
He will now be added to the list of NFL players who cracked when the lights shined brightest
The Biggest Playoff Blunders In NFL History (A Thread) ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/CyIXJtztuw
— Frank Michael Smith (@frankmikesmith) January 20, 2025
Josh Allen’s playoff losses
2019 Wild Card exit vs. Texans
In his first playoff game, Allen recorded over 250 passing yards, 40 rushing yards, and 15 receiving yards in a game.
Talk about a playoff debut.
He also had some shaky moments, including attempting to lateral the football back on first down in crunch time.
That’s trying to do too much.
2022 Divisional Round Exit vs. Bengals
Allen completed only 59 percent of his passes and threw an interception. It was arguably his worst playoff performance.
The Chiefs
In the 2020 AFCCG, Allen’s defense surrendered 38 points to the Chiefs. The following year, in the 2021 Divisional Round, Buffalo gave up another 42 points, including a field goal in the final 13 seconds to force overtime.
Two years later, in the 2023 Divisional Round, excluding kneel-downs, Buffalo allowed Kansas City to score on five of seven drives, including five straight possessions to open the game.
The other two drives resulted in a break for Buffalo, where Kansas City fumbled the ball before it broke the plane, and the other was a punt.
Year after year, his defense continues to let him down in the postseason. They have yet to intercept Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs, but they did so seven times in the regular season since 2020.
La cara de Josh Allen lo dice todo.
Los Kansas City Chiefs. Una vez más. #NFL
📸: @NFLUKIRE pic.twitter.com/5alLcTtIjB
— Ready Hut (@Ready_Hut) January 27, 2025
Joe Burrow’s playoff wins
Burrow’s defense never gave up over 25 points in seven playoff games.
2021 Wild Card win vs. Raiders
Burrow led the Bengals to its first playoff win in 33 years. He completed 70 percent of his passes and tossed for two touchdowns.
2021 Divisional Round win vs. Titans
The Bengals’ offensive line saw Burrow go down nine times, and Burrow still managed to throw for nearly 350 yards and complete 75 percent of his passes.
His defense held Derrick Henry to 62 rushing yards on 20 carries and snagged three interceptions.
2022 AFCCG win vs. Chiefs
In the last six years, Kansas City has represented the AFC five times. That lone 2021 Burrow Super Bowl appearance in between is like Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks’ 2006 Finals appearance in the 2000s. It’s right smack in the middle of the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs coming out West from 2000 to 2010.
In the 2021 AFCCG, the Chiefs scored touchdowns on all three possessions in the first half and were knocking on the door again to close the half.
What a stop by the @Bengals defense to end the half! #NFLPlayoffs #RuleTheJungle
📺: #CINvsKC on CBS
📱: https://t.co/dKNUFkxkbU pic.twitter.com/Rxtmq9cnBt— NFL (@NFL) January 30, 2022
With no timeouts in a goal-to-goal situation, the Chiefs failed to score before halftime. Their gamble did not pay off, costing them three points and eventually leading to a three-point loss.
They were one less gamble — or a few yards from another touchdown — to having six straight Super Bowl appearances.
2023 Wild Card win vs. Ravens
Burrow completed nearly 72 percent of his passes and scored two touchdowns. In a similar ending to the Raiders Wild Card win, the defense held a Jackson-less Ravens offense out of the end zone on the final play.
2023 Divisional Round win vs. Bills
Burrow had 242 passing yards, completed 64 percent of his passes, and scored two touchdowns. Cincinnati allowed one touchdown to Buffalo.
Final verdict
Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen don’t deserve as much criticism as they receive for not getting past Patrick Mahomes.
Joe Burrow was fantastic in his two playoff runs, including making the Super Bowl in his first run.
He does get too much credit for that one Super Bowl appearance.
Of course, because Jackson and Allen have at least one MVP to their resume, they should be held to a slightly higher standard.
The consistency must be the same. One cannot say, “Joe Burrow would have won MVP if he had a defense,” and then also not hold Burrow to a standard of… at least making the playoffs.
Plus, that would take away Allen’s MVP, and that’s why we don’t get into hypotheticals.
The world is counting on these three to deny Patrick Mahomes from getting back to the Super Bowl every year.
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