Patrick Mahomes says his second Super Bowl has taken pressure off of expectations

At just 27 years old, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is a two-time Super Bowl champion, two-time NFL MVP and arguably a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee if he retired today.

In addition, he’s the first quarterback ever to win multiple Super Bowl rings and MVP awards before the age of 30. In a line of work where legacies are often debated, Mahomes’ has been cemented. Given his list of accomplishments, when it comes to pressure, Mahomes is free of it, he recently told Ben Felderstein of Complex.

“Honestly, I think winning the second Super Bowl has taken a lot of pressure off of me,” Mahomes said. “If you look around the league, winning two Super Bowls is crazy. Not a lot of people have done it in their careers, especially at the quarterback position. And so, obviously I have goals to continue to win, and try to win as many Super Bowls as possible. But it kind of gives you that relief to know that you’ve done it with two different teams.

“Even though they’re both with Chiefs, it was a whole brand new roster compared to the first time I won it. Now let’s just go out there and have fun and enjoy it. It’s fun every single day. I think that’s what makes it easy is whenever you’re going out there, and just enjoying your work in any profession, it takes that pressure off you. And I think I have a lot of great guys around me that enjoy it as well, so it’s just fun to go into work every day and try to get better.”

Is Patrick Mahomes underpaid?

Despite his status as the best quarterback in the game today, Mahomes sure isn’t paid like it. In fact, six other signal callers around the league earn more annually than Mahomes:

• Lamar Jackson — Baltimore Ravens — $52 million
• Jalen Hurts — Philadelphia Eagles — $51 million
• Aaron Rodgers — New York Jets — $50.27 million
• Russell Wilson — Denver Broncos — $49 million
• Kyler Murray — Arizona Cardinals — $46.1 million
• Deshaun Watson — Cleveland Browns — $46 million

Mahomes may be “underpaid” at $45 million, though he admitted Wednesday it doesn’t bother him. His main focus?

Winning — as you would expect.

“Obviously, I want to do the best for myself as well,” Mahomes said at OTAs. “But at the same time, I’ve always said I’m more worried about legacy or winning rings than money at this moment. We keep up with what’s going on around the league, but at the same time I’m never going to do anything to hurt us from keeping the great players around me or teetering around that line.”