Sports

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby tend to mix it up a bit when they play one another twice a year as division rivals.

While Mahomes has gotten the better of the Raiders throughout his career, sporting a 10-2 record against the club entering 2025, the two players share an appreciation for each other's game. Recently, Crosby said that while he sees himself as the league's best pass rusher, he sees Mahomes as the best quarterback.

In an interview with Up & Adams, Mahomes noted Crosby is one of the toughest competitors he has to face.

"I have so much respect for all those guys in the league that are about their craft, they’re about being better and better," Mahomes said. "Like he said, we’re going to compete. We know when we step on that football field, we’re going against each other, it’s the Raiders, it’s the Chiefs — it’s two of the greatest in the league going at each other snap [after] snap and continuing to do it twice a year.

"And so, there’s so much healthy respect, but when we get on that football field, it’s going to be trash talk. It’s going to be going out there, he’s going to try to get to me, I’m going to be trying to make big plays happen. But those are the guys — I always say, obviously, he’s on the other team, so I want to go against him and beat him. That’s the guys you want on your team, the guys who are going to leave it all out there, no matter what the score is, and be the best they can possibly be every snap."

But is Crosby the league's best edge rusher?

"I think he’s sacked me the most out of anyone I’ve ever played against, so to me, he’s the best pass rusher I’ve played against," Mahomes said. "So, no offense to any other pass rusher — just putting it out there. But he is the best one that I’ve gone up against because he goes out there and he gives you the effort, he has the moves, and he has the skill. And I think it’s hard to have all three of those and have them year in and year out."

Crosby has sacked Mahomes six times in his career.

The first meeting between Mahomes and Crosby in 2025 is set for Week 7 in Kansas City.

Two years ago, Quarterback on Netflix became the most pleasant surprise of the summer, an inside look at the 2022 seasons for Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota.

Then came the 2023 season. And no quarterbacks wanted to do it.

So, last year, Quarterback took a seat. Receiver replaced it. And it wasn't nearly as good.

Now Quarterback is back. It debuted today on Netflix. It's Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, and Kirk Cousins.

All three had very different experiences last season. Burrow played the best of the bunch, but his team fell short of the postseason (in part because the Bengals is the Bengals). Goff continued to play extremely well, but the No. 1 seed became a one-and-done postseason. And Cousins struggled to return to form after the Achilles injury that ended his 2023 season in Week 8, before being benched.

If there's anything worth posting, we'll share it. If you think that counts as a spoiler, look away when you see anything with "Quarterback" or "Netflix" in the headline.

The NFL's current TV deals technically run through 2033. But the league has the ability to pull the plug four years early — and it undoubtedly will.

The likelihood of open season after the 2029 season could result in another potential solution. John Ourand of Puck reports that the NFL "could" approach the networks before 2029, with the goal of negotiating deals that would last a year or two beyond 2033.

That would make plenty of sense, given the leverage the league enjoys via the ability to throw the doors open for all comers in only four years. With Netflix and YouTube emerging as future partners via one-off experiences (Netflix on Christmas, and YouTube on the first Friday of the season), there could be more partners than packages.

Which is good for the NFL. And which makes it prudent for the networks to extend the current deals before having to compete against other operations to keep their current football turf.

The unofficial impetus for an effort to extend all deals could come from a change-of-control provision that allows the NFL to re-bid the CBS package if/when (and it currently looks more like "when" than "if") the Skydance-Paramount merger is finalized.

Regardless of how it plays out, the NFL has a knack for squeezing more and more cash out of its TV rights. So, whatever the league does, new deals will happen and the dollars will hit a level that will seem unsustainable. Until the next time around, when the numbers get even higher.