Who Should I Start? Patrick Mahomes or Tyler Shough

Wednesday, April 23, 3:09 PM

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes hit the NFL by storm early in his career with his deep-passing skills and explosive plays. However, the Chiefs' offense ranked 27th in 20-plus-yard plays in 2024. Since Tyreek Hill departed to Miami and Travis Kelce has taken a step back, its offense has not connected on splash plays as often. Heading into next season, Mahomes is aiming to incorporate big plays back into the offense. "We've had a lot of turnover in the receiving room, and it seems like the core group will be back in its entirety." Mahomes said." So the goal is to try to build on it and get even better and try to get back to some of the explosive passing plays that we've done in years past." With all-world speedster Xavier Worthy heading into Year 2 and a potential full season of Marquise Brown, the ceiling is high for Kansas City's passing attack in 2025. Mahomes has not been a fantasy football game-changer over the last two seasons, but a more dangerous offensive attack could put him back in the high-end QB1 range.

Saturday, May 10, 1:01 PM

Now that quarterback Derek Carr (shoulder) has announced his retirement, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport writes that it sets the stage for rookie second-round quarterback Tyler Shough to be the team's eventual starter in 2025. Shough's stock for his rookie campaign was already rising with Carr's availability in question for 2025 due to a shoulder injury, but now Carr is out of the picture completely. The 25-year-old Shough will be competing primarily with Spencer Rattler, who completed just 57% of his passes while throwing four touchdowns and five interceptions in his rookie season in 2024. Even if the Saints give Shough a little more time to develop and name Rattler the starter for Week 1, it seems likely that Shough will be starting games in the Big Easy sooner than later in 2025. Shough is old for a rookie and has plenty of experience, making him the current favorite over Rattler for QB1 duties.