Patrick Mahomes has taken a commanding lead in the NFL MVP race

Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to another win while emerging as the NFL MVP favorite.

Welcoming the Panthers to Arrowhead Stadium in Week 9, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs sleepwalked through the first quarter of play. Subsequently, Carolina jumped out to a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter and the reigning Super Bowl champions looked like they might be in trouble. Then Mahomes flipped his magical switch and that was all she wrote.

In a 33-31 win where Carolina tried to stage a late comeback, Mahomes was divine. Last year’s Super Bowl MVP and the 2018 NFL MVP completed 30-of-45 throws on the day for 372 yards with four touchdowns and no picks. And as crazy as this may sound, he may have even been better just watching his performance.

As Mahomes put up those numbers on Sunday, he set an NFL record as the fastest player to 100 career touchdown passes, doing so in his first 40 games, eclipsing the previous mark set by Dan Marino (44 games). But making history wasn’t the only thing he did.

On the heels of another superstar performance and as Russell Wilson has been tripped up (by his standards) in recent weeks, Patrick Mahomes has now clearly taken the lead in the 2020 NFL MVP race. And as he’s only gotten better with each passing game, it’s hard to see that narrative changing.

If Patrick Mahomes keeps this up, he’ll win his second NFL MVP in three years.

To begin the year, Mahomes looked good but wasn’t necessarily dominant, something that largely continued over his first seven games. He had four games over that span with under 250 yards passing and only threw for three or more touchdowns in two of those contests. But in the last two games, he’s hit another gear.

In wins over the Jets and Panthers, admittedly bad competition, Mahomes has gone 61-of-87 for 788 yards with nine touchdowns and no interceptions. And though the individual games weren’t overwhelming to start the year, the totality of Mahomes’ work is undeniable at this point.

Leading the Chiefs to an 8-1 record and on a clear trajectory to the playoffs yet again, the quarterback has now thrown for just shy of 2,700 yards with 25 touchdowns and only one interception for the year. Oh yeah, he also has two more rushing touchdowns on the ledger as well, because why not.

Entering Week 9, the argument could’ve been made that the NFL MVP race was down to two viable candidates with Mahomes and Wilson. But with Wilson continuing to concede ground with a two-interception performance in a loss, it’s impossible to justify him being ahead of Mahomes on the MVP ladder at this point.