While Mahomes has enjoyed the upper hand, his admiration for Jackson was clear when he met with reporters following the Chiefs’ practice on Sunday. Success hasn’t made Mahomes complacent because he’s obsessed with winning. In Jackson, the youngest player to win two MVP’s, Mahomes admires Jackson’s genuine desire to win.
“More than athletic ability and the ability to throw is the way he competes,” Mahomes said. “He’s a guy that competes every single week. You can tell he cares. You can tell he wants to go out there and win and he wants to put it on his shoulders to take his team to where they can win as many games as possible.
“That’s truly what it takes to be a great quarterback in this league. It’s not always about talent. It’s about, can you go out there and compete every single week and find ways whenever you don’t have your best stuff, your team doesn’t have your best stuff, you find ways to win football games that way.”
Jackson has displayed a sense of urgency throughout training camp, believing the 2024 Ravens have another golden opportunity to win a championship. Beating Kansas City to start the season would make an impressive statement, but Jackson says he’s not viewing the matchup as a chance to get payback versus the Chiefs.
“Any game I play in, I feel like it’s a revenge game,” Jackson said. “I’m not just going to look at this game like a revenge game. Anybody we play, no matter if we’ve beaten them or lost to them in previous years, I just want to win.”
