Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes at the foundation of Chiefs’ budding dynasty

Mahomes and the Chiefs are aiming to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl champs in 19 years. The Chiefs had a opportunity to do it three years ago, but lost 31-9 to Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.

They beat the Eagles last season and won Super Bowl 54 over the 49ers, 31-20 in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Reid, who has taken the Chiefs to the playoffs in 10 of 11 seasons at the helm, preceded Mahomes in Kansas City in 2013. Mahomes was drafted 10th overall in 2017 and played sparingly behind Alex Smith. The Chiefs traded Smith over the 2018 offseason when they felt Mahomes was ready to take over.

It was a shrewd move, as they’ve been to six consecutive AFC Championship games.

“He’s a great player,” Reid said. “I’ve been around a lot of great ones, and he’s right at the top of the list. He’s top-notch all the way around. All the things that makes somebody great, he’s got them.”

Mahomes, 28, who played at Texas Tech, has matured over the years with the Chiefs.

“I’ve obviously grown as a quarterback, as a leader and as a person,” Mahomes said.

This run to the Super Bowl may have been the Chiefs’ steepest climb.

They lost three of four games, including a Christmas Day bashing by the Raiders, and were looking very ordinary at 9-6. They won their final two regular-season games and stormed into the playoffs as the No. 3 seed. They beat Miami at home in the wild-card round of the playoffs and then went on the road to defeat Buffalo in the divisional round and a rugged Baltimore team in the AFC title game.

“I’m proud of the guys because no matter what the outside world said, they still believed,” Mahomes said. “They still worked hard. They strived to be great.”

The Chiefs receivers started to play better, and they leaned on a tenacious defense, unlike their earlier Super Bowl teams that featured Mahomes tossing bombs to Tyreek Hill.

“I see the talent, and I know they can make plays,” Mahomes said. “If you continue to work at it every single day, your fortunes are going to turn, and that’s what happened. You’ve seen that in this playoff run. We’ve got the guys to get to the game. We’ve got the guys to win it. They just have to go out there and prove it.”

In the Chiefs’ regular-season loss to Buffalo on Dec. 10, Mahomes was shown going ballistic on the sidelines. He appeared to be upset with the officiating.

“Just dealing with some adversity,” Mahomes said. “I think the biggest thing was, we’d win those close games in the past. We weren’t winning (them). I think the guys responded in a good way. We kept the same mindset. That’s the reason why we are here today. We’ve dealt with those adverse moments, and we’ve come out better on the other side of it.”

Mahomes was calm, cool and relaxed here early in Super Bowl week, his fourth Super Bowl.

“We can enjoy it because we know what to expect,” Mahomes said.

Discussing his football mortality and his longevity in the league is easy for Mahomes. He’s not sure if he can win seven Super Bowl rings like Brady has, but he wants to try.

“Your goal is to be the best player that you can be,” Mahomes said. “I know that I’m blessed to (have) a lot of great players around me. So, right now, it’s doing whatever I can to beat a great 49ers team and try to get that third ring.”

“If you ask me that question in like 15 years, I can see if I can get close to seven. But seven seems like a long ways away still.”

Mahomes would like to give it a shot.

“That’s the goal,” Mahomes said. “You want to play as long as they’ll let you play. It takes a lot of work outside of the building. It (requires) taking care of your body, eating healthy and trying to get rid of the Dad-body that I’ve got.”

Mahomes doesn’t want to be carried off the field.

“My hope is to play as long as they’ll let me play,” Mahomes said. “Fifteen years seems like a long time, but Brady has done it and some other guys have done it. I’m going to try to see if I can do it as well.”

Mahomes figures that he may know when it’s time to leave.

“I don’t want to play until I’m hurting the team,” Mahomes said. “If I can still go out there and have success, I still love it every single day, that’s the biggest thing. Put the time and effort into it, that’s the biggest thing, then I’ll play. If I’m helping the team, I’ll go out there to do whatever I can to keep doing that.”

Reid knows that having a quarterback is key, but the organization is important, too.

“Everybody has had a piece of this,” Reid said. “(Team president) Mark Donovan, I’d add to that list, too. Everybody has had a little piece of this throughout the organization. I take a lot of pride, and it’s great to be back.”

Reid, who went to five NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl with the Eagles, knows winning another Super Bowl title will be a battle.

“We know it’s a huge challenge to get here when everything is going right,” Reid said. “We had some ups and downs, and we had to battle through. The guys were persistent with it. Coaches and players. It actually started with the Raiders. They came back to our place and got after us. We all had to kind of step back and look at what we were doing and do whatever we needed to do to get better.”

The Raiders punched the Chiefs in the mouth, 20-14, on Christmas Day. Stole their presents like the Grinch.

“That was the one that kind of turned our season around a little bit because we had to do better,” Reid said. “We were too up and down. We weren’t consistent enough. We understood the reasons why. We’ll have to play really well against the 49ers. They are a heck of a football team.”

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