Patrick Mahomes crowns division rival NFL's best pass rusher
The Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders face each other twice per season, giving familiarity plenty of opportunity to breed contempt. But while Mahomes may hate seeing a 255-pound, trash-talking monster and two-time All-Pro edge rusher lining up across from him, he certainly respects him.
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Not long after Crosby called Mahomes the league's best quarterback, the three-time Super Bowl MVP returned the favor. While talking about the Chiefs-Raiders rivalry with Up & Adams host Kay Adams, he singled out Crosby as "the best pass rusher I've played against."
'I think he's sacked me the most out of anyone I've ever played against, so to me, he's the best pass rusher I've played against,' Mahomes told Adams. 'So, no offense to any other pass rusher, just putting it out there. But he is the best one that I've gone up against because he goes out there and he gives you the effort, he has the moves, and he has the skill. And I think it's hard to have all three of those and have them year in and year out.'
Crosby is responsible for six of Mahomes' 184 regular season sacks and the Raiders are tied with the Denver Broncos as the two teams who've sacked the two-time MVP the most (25 each). Crosby's gotten to Mahomes more times than Von Miller (four), Khalil Mack (3.5) or Myles Garrett (two).
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Mahomes also handled Crosby's A+ trash talk as diplomatically as possible thanks to the help of bountiful sports cliches.
'There's so much healthy respect, but when we get on that football field, it's going to be trash talk," said Mahomes. "It's going to be going out there, he's going to try to get to me, I'm going to be trying to make big plays happen. But those are the guys — I always say, obviously, he's on the other team, so I want to go against him and beat him. That's the guys you want on your team, the guys who are going to leave it all out there, no matter what the score is, and be the best they can possibly be every snap.'
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Patrick Mahomes crowns division rival NFL's best pass rusher
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