Patrick Mahomes

Mahomes enters his age-29 season no longer an elite fantasy option, but rather a solid mid-to-back-end starter. After five straight seasons as a top-6 fantasy QB (PPG), he's finished 13th and 11th the past two seasons. Mahomes has evolved into a quarterback who still attempts a ton of passes (exactly third in pass attempts four years in a row), but is more conservative (career-low 6.4 aDOT and 6.8 YPA in 2024) and doesn't throw as many TDs as in years past (26 last season was his fewest since 2019). Perhaps he'll rebound a bit in that area with the Xavier Worthy/Rashee Rice/Hollywood Brown trio together, but in the meantime Mahomes adds just enough with his legs (between 300 and 400 yards five seasons in a row) to keep him in the fantasy starter conversation.

Mahomes finished among the top six fantasy quarterbacks in points per game during his first five seasons as a starter. He was the highest-graded quarterback during those five years, just ahead of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
Mahomes has finished as a top-12 quarterback in just 37.6% of his games over the last two seasons after finishing in the top 12 in 88.2% of his games in 2022. This included a 12-game stretch where he failed to finish among the top 12 each week.
Mahomes never had his top-three receivers healthy at the same time. Their top two receivers were supposed to be Rashee Rice, who played at least 50% of the Chiefs’ offensive snaps in three games, and Hollywood Brown, who didn’t play at least 50% of the snaps until the playoffs. They should both be healthy this season, joining Xavier Worthy.