I don't think we can shoo off the longevity like that. As that Twitter post you linked says, both Marino and Unitas peaked really early and weren't the same by the time they were a decade in (I just pointed this out about Marino in a thread a week or two ago). These guys were transcendent players who revolutionized the position for their eras (same way Pat is doing)---->Johnny U played 18 years and the last six of those years was on a consistent decline...
Marino played 17 years and same thing, last six or seven years was on a steady decline...
This is also why I've always cautioned to pump the brakes on Mahomes, we HAVE seen this before. What he is to our eyes is what Unitas was to the eyes watching him in real time, and the eyes watching Marino, then Favre, then Manning, then Rodgers after that. Fair enough point that Mahomes' playoff production is already separating itself from most guys, but the longevity is another qualifier that separates players at that uppermost tier...
Back to Unitas real quick, he gets left out of most discussions, probably because he retired 50 years ago and he's been dead for 20 years. Probably 95%+ of football fans alive today never saw him play a down, and the few remaining who did see him, half of them probably can't remember him with clarity; my dad is 58 in April, says he started watching ball in '70 or '71, and while he remembers "hearing about" Unitas as a kid, says he has no memory of ever seeing a Unitas snap or game...
Unitas won three chips and three MVPs, if this is an accolade count, Mahomes is still behind him, too. He should be in everyone's Top 10 and has a case as a Top 5 GOAT, and if you weight everyone's play for the era in which they played, he was Mahomes in his generation...
Favre was a touchdown away from being a 2x champ in Y7, and he was great in The Bowl he lost. If he wins in '97 and is a 2x champ the legacy narrative on him is much greater than it is...
Rodgers' longevity in being an elite quarterback, in addition to the actual skillset and play, are going to keep him in a conversation with Mahomes for awhile...
Longevity matters. It isn't the only thing that matters, we all agree on that, but neither is ring count, otherwise Eli and others would be in these conversations...
Also, the mountain to catch up ultimately to Montana and Brady isn't about reaching a certain number of rings, I've been adamant on that. He certainly has to win more, but he has to have the kind of performances they put on in the Super Bowl. Mahomes has played in three, gotten a little better with each successive one, and yesterday was his cleanest, most consistent Super Bowl to date, he was great...
It wasn't an All-Time performance, he's played in 3 and we've yet to get an iconic Super Bowl from him. This isn't as significant compared to the other Top 10 GOATs we talk about, because most of them don't have that kind of SB performance either----->but Brady and Montana do, and they both have MULTIPLE All-Time SB performances...
Mahomes is three Bowls in with zero to date. It's a factor with those two guys along with everything else, at some point we're going to need that from him even if in a loss (like '17 Brady)...
