Patrick Mahomes targeting one thing amid Chiefs' pursuit of three-peat

While the Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to become the first team to three-peat as Super Bowl champions beginning in September, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes hopes one thing is different in 2024.

The star quarterback hopes the upcoming season is more enjoyable than the 2023 campaign.

"The end result [last season] was awesome, but I think a lot of us still have a weird feeling in our mouth...It wasn't fun every single week having to try to just continue to get better and better and the results not paying off the way you wanted to," Mahomes explained, per Adam Teicher of ESPN. "It wasn't a lot of fun. We have a lot of those same guys back and they know how that felt and so we're going to try to prepare ourselves better this year so that we can play better throughout the season and obviously try to end with the same result.''

The 2023 Chiefs lost three of four games ahead of Christmas, and that stretch was a reason Kansas City had to play the AFC Championship Game at the Baltimore Ravens rather than at home. Meanwhile, Pro-Football-Reference stats show that Mahomes ended last season ranked eighth in the league with a 63.1 adjusted QBR and sixth with 4,183 passing yards. He tossed 27 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions over 16 contests.

Kansas City gave Mahomes some help this offseason by signing wideout Marquise "Hollywood" Brown in free agency and drafting wide receiver Xavier Worthy via the 28th overall pick.

"We added a lot of speed,'' Mahomes said. "What's better than going against our defense? It's the best defense in the NFL and we get to go against them every single day and really show where we're at and how we can get better.''

According to Kevin Patra of the NFL's website, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said on Tuesday that "peer pressure" from team captains and other players viewed as leaders is keeping younger members of the locker room focused on the fact that the time for celebrating this past February's accomplishment is over. As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Kansas City as the overall betting favorite at +500 odds to win Super Bowl LIX.