Only nine mostly transcendent starts into his NFL career, Patrick Mahomes already is a lot of things: Paradigm shifter, Late-game maestro and well on his way to winning league MVP honors in his first season as a starter.
One thing Mahomes isn't — at least not yet — is default weekly QB1. As otherwordly as Mahomes and the Chiefs offense are performing, note the company he's keeping atop the fantasy football leader board, where his closest and second-closest pursuers have already won the award he's chasing.
While reigning MVP Tom Brady is all the way down at QB9 overall (and more importantly QB15 in average scoring), directly following Mahomes in weekly output are 2016 MVP Matt Ryan and 2015 MVP Cam Newton.