What's wrong with Patrick Mahomes? Stats behind Chiefs QB's slow 2024 start

The Kansas City Chiefs are off to a great start in their quest for an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat. They are the last remaining unbeaten team in the NFL for the 2024 season and are on track to challenge for the AFC's No. 1 seed.

The most impressive part of Kansas City's fast start? The Chiefs have achieved perfection despite Patrick Mahomes' below-average performance.

Mahomes remains one of the NFL's most talented quarterbacks and has frequently flashed high-end playmaking ability on the run in 2024. That said, he hasn't been the same, explosive passer NFL fans have been accustomed to seeing. He also has struggled with turnovers and entered Week 8 on pace to lead the league in interceptions.

So, what's wrong with Mahomes, and how can the Chiefs fix it to become even more of a juggernaut? Here are the stats behind the signal-caller's slow start.

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Patrick Mahomes stats 2024

Below is a look at Mahomes' stats entering Week 9 and where he ranked league-wide in notable passing categories.

• Comp. %: 68.4 (8th)

• Passing yards: 1,651 (16th)

• Pass TDs: 8 (T-16th)

• INTs: 9 (T-Most)

• Yards/attempt: 7.3 (15th)

• Passer rating: 84.9 (22nd)

• QBR: 66.9 (7th)

• PFF grade: 81.7 (6th)

Mahomes' rate stats are all looking solid, as he ranks top-10 in completion percentage and QBR while sporting a rock-solid PFF grade. However, there is a major discrepancy between the latter two stats and the quarterback's passer rating, which ranks 22nd among 31 qualified quarterbacks this season.

The reason for that? Mahomes entered Week 9 tied for first in the NFL with nine interceptions. He has thrown picks on 4% of his passes in 2024, ranked fourth behind only Will Levis (5.6%), Anthony Richardson (5.3%) and Jordan Love (4.6%).

For context, Mahomes' previous worst interception season came in 2023, when he tossed a career-high 14 picks that year and had an interception percentage of 2.3. His current pace has him on track to blow by the former number with 22 interceptions.

The silver lining for Chiefs fans? Mahomes is on pace to post a career-best completion percentage and remains on pace for a 4,000-yard passing season. As such, he should quickly be able to turn what has personally been an up-and-down start into a strong season if he can cut down on his turnovers.

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What's wrong with Patrick Mahomes?

Mahomes' struggles to begin the 2024 NFL season can be traced largely to his inability to find consistent success as a downfield passer.

Mahomes entered Week 9 having attempted 59 passes of 10-plus yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus. He has completed 55.9% of those passes for 743 yards, three touchdowns and seven interceptions. All seven of those interceptions have qualified as turnover-worthy plays, giving him a turnover-worthy play (TWP) percentage of 11.9% on intermediate to deep passes. He had a 7.7 TWP percentage on similar passes in 2024.

Mahomes' struggles in the intermediate-to-deep area of the field can partly be traced to his dearth of receiver talent. The Chiefs lost "Hollywood" Brown to a sternoclavicular injury before the season began while Rashee Rice suffered a torn ACL in the team's Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. That has forced Mahomes to rely heavily on rookie Xavier Worthy, journeyman JuJu Smith-Schuster and 35-year-old Travis Kelce to carry the team's passing offense.

Success in doing that has varied, which has shifted the Chiefs toward a more run-heavy approach. They entered Week 9 passing on just 52.1% of their plays, good for 23rd in the NFL, after ranking no lower than 10th in the category during Mahomes' first six seasons as a starter. The decrease in throwing opportunities has naturally caused some of the veteran's counting stats to decline.

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It also hasn't helped that Mahomes and the Chiefs have struggled against multiple safety "shell coverage" in 2024. Those coverages – and specifically, the two-high safety shell – is designed to prevent quarterbacks from making explosive, downfield throws against a defense. That strategy explains why Mahomes and the Chiefs have had issues pushing the ball beyond 10 yards downfield in 2024.

It's also fair to acknowledge that Mahomes has endured some bad luck in that region of the field. After all, his seven downfield, turnover-worthy plays have all been intercepted.

Still, Mahomes needs to improve in that region to unlock the full potential of Kansas City's offense. That will require him to make safer decisions with the ball, especially when assessing whether to throw into tight coverage or take downfield shots. More checkdowns may not excite Chiefs fans, but if it helps cut down his turnovers, that would be a step in the right direction for Kansas City's scoring output.

Of course, fixing the issue might be as simple as getting Mahomes to develop chemistry with his downfield weapons. Worthy, a first-round pick in 2024, could come into his own as a deep threat as the season progresses. New addition DeAndre Hopkins also adds an experienced, bigger-bodied pass-catcher to the fold who might be able to generate more separation to aid Mahomes.

Mahomes has plenty of time – and leeway – to get this figured out. At 7-0, the Chiefs are well-positioned for another playoff run and appear to have the defensive strength needed to be a tough out in the postseason.

If Kansas City can get its once dominant offense back on track in addition to that, they will become even cleaner-cut favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy again.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Patrick Mahomes stats: Why Chiefs QB is off to a slow start in 2024