The different kinds of hierarchies in the NFL change every year. Whether it’s regarding the pay or the amount of popularity a player garners. In the recent time, the ranking in terms of pay has changed. While Patrick Mahomes used to be one of the highest-paid QBs, he has been overtaken by Lamar Jackson. However, in terms of popularity and being favored by the league, Mahomes has climbed to the top.

Recently, Ari Meirov took to Twitter to showcase an interesting stat. The stat was determined just mere hours after the schedule for the league had been released. Meirov’s information also made it very clear who the NFL thinks is the next poster boy for the league. Surprisingly, Mahomes beat out some huge names in the popularity contest.

The NFL Golden Boy: Patrick Mahomes

After Brady’s departure, everyone had thought that the next veteran QB, Aaron Rodgers would take over in terms of how popular he is in the league. However, the league seems to have gone in the direction of the QB from the Kansas City Chiefs. While his $450 million pay has been beaten by Jackson, his popularity has started to exceed well-established players.

A great indicator of this was after the primetime spots of the league went viral. The primetime games are the ones that usually get a higher viewership as they’re played in the end. And this year, the KC Chiefs QB’s primetime games outrank the number of primetime games a veteran QB like Rodgers gets.

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The league seems to be indirectly signaling that their new golden boy is Mahomes. Furthermore, as the primetime game spots went viral, fans took to Twitter to showcase their reaction.

Fans confused over primetime spots

After the number of primetime games was revealed, fans had a lot to say about who deserves the primetime spots. One fan mentioned how the Cowboys don’t really deserve any primetime games.

Furthermore, fans also mentioned how the distribution of the games came due to the kind of talents the quarterbacks have.

There were also some jokes about what got teams selected for primetime games that included Mahomes’ achievement last season.

There was also some ridicule hurled at the Bengals.

Finally, one fan mentioned how the Chiefs should get even more games than they already have.

All in all, the fans seemed boggled by some of the allocations of the primetime games. However, no one seemed to question how many games had been allocated to the Chiefs. While Mahomes might not be the most-paid player in the league right now, he certainly seems to be the most popular one. It only remains to be seen how well the Chiefs and Mahomes make use of these primetime games.

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