The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Judith Benjamin
Spoiler alert: Players around the NFL think Patrick Mahomes is pretty good.
The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and two-time MVP was our runaway winner as the best player in the game today, according to the 85 players our beat writers from The Athletic spoke to over the past month. That’s no surprise, but the rest of the answers weren’t so obvious, as we set out to conduct our first anonymous NFL player poll.
We asked each player we spoke to the same set of questions, although not every player answered them all. They were granted anonymity in order to candidly offer their opinions on the league’s players, coaches, commissioner and some of the biggest topics facing the league today — including running back salaries, the grass versus turf debate and more.
Players were polled on who dishes the best trash talk, which coach besides their own they’d like to play for and who are the most underrated players in the league. Some of the more entertaining responses came when players were asked which team has the most annoying fan base.
“Buffalo,” one player responded. “They be mooning folks and it’s like, ‘Why y’all showing y’all ass?’ F— outta here with that.”
Sorry, Bills fans, just like the standings right now, that wasn’t enough to get you into first place.
Throughout this player poll — and upcoming stories that will dive deeper into some of the questions — we hope you learn more about what today’s NFL players really think.
(Editor’s note: In some cases, the combined percentages of all the answers to a question may not add up to 100 percent, because individual percentages have been rounded up or down to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. Half-votes were awarded if a player gave two answers to a question.)
Did you really expect anybody else? Nearly half of the respondents selected Mahomes, many without giving it much thought.
“He’s Patrick Mahomes,” said one player.
“Don’t you have to say him?” added another.
“There’s nobody like him,” one more said.
