Sports

Patrick Mahomes is officially 10 years away from being able to say, "I'm a man! I'm 40!"

For now, he's still the man. Even though the Chiefs are 0-2 for the first time since 2014, Mahomes is the most accomplished quarterback in the NFL, with three Super Bowl rings. The other three consensus best quarterbacks (Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow) don't have one.

In fact, the only current starting quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl other than Mahomes are Jalen Hurts, Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson, Joe Flacco, and Aaron Rodgers. They have one each.

Mahomes has played in five Super Bowls. He has never not played in an AFC Championship. He has never lost in regulation in an AFC Championship. It's an incredible, and unprecedented, launch to a career.

Now that Mahomes is 30, he's residing in that sweet spot between retaining his physical skills and acquiring the kind of experience that allows him to walk up to the line of scrimmage and know what's coming. Unfortunately for Mahomes, he has the weakest collection of supporting players since he became the full-time starter in 2018. And the Chiefs won't have receiver Rashee Rice for four more weeks.

The running game, beyond Mahomes, is nonexistent. The quarterback has 123 yards. The next two have 94 combined. (Kareem Hunt and Isaiah Pacheco are at 47 yards each.)

The receivers aren't as good as they used to be. Tight end Travis Kelce — a future Hall of Famer who turns 36 on October 5 — is in a noticeable decline. (Watch this play, and compare the post-interception effort of Kelce and rookie tackle Josh Simmons.)

The defense lacks high-level playmakers, with 31-year-old defensive tackle Chris Jones in the back end of his prime.

But Mahomes is still Mahomes. And he'll be able to play at a high level for another 10 years or longer, if he wants.

Regardless, it's shaping up to be a transition year for the Chiefs. While they could be a much better team when the postseason rolls around, they first have to qualify. And they're currently two games and a tiebreaker behind the Chargers in the AFC West.

The Commanders made the signing of edge rusher Preston Smith official on Wednesday morning and they also announced the move they made to make room for him on their 53-man roster.

Cornerback Jonathan Jones has been placed on the injured reserve list. Jones injured his hamstring in last Thursday's loss to the Packers and will be out for a minimum of four games as a result of the move.

Jones signed with the Commanders in March after spending his first nine seasons with the Patriots. He had one tackle while playing 22 defensive snaps and 21 special teams snaps over the first two weeks of the season.

Trey Amos, Marshon Lattimore, Mike Sainristil, and Noah Igbinoghene remain on the cornerback depth chart for Washington.

The Jaguars want wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter to be the NFL's only true two-way player in decades, but through two games he's not a full-time player on either offense or defense.

Hunter has played 61 percent of the Jaguars' offensive snaps and 37 percent of the Jaguars' defensive snaps in the first two weeks of the season. That's highly unusual; only four NFL players have played on both sides of the ball this season and the other three (Philadelphia's Cooper DeJean, Cleveland's Adin Huntington and Pittsburgh's Jalen Ramsey) are almost exclusively defensive players who have played less than 5 percent of offensive snaps.

But contrary to suggestions that the Jaguars would give Hunter a bigger workload than he could physically handle, Hunter actually isn't playing an extraordinary number of snaps. Hunter has played a total of 133 snaps this season. More than 100 NFL players, including nine on the Jaguars, have played more total snaps than that. It's just that those other players are playing only on one side of the ball, and sometimes some special teams.

So far, Hunter hasn't had a huge impact. He's caught nine passes, but only totaled 55 receiving yards, and only one of his nine catches got the Jaguars a first down. On defense he has no interceptions, one pass defensed and three combined tackles.

Hunter is doing something unique by getting significant snaps on both sides of the ball, but through two weeks he's not a major impact player.