Tom Brady sees a lot of himself in Patrick Mahomes.

The NFL legend had some memorable clashes with the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, with the pair meeting several times at the tail end of Brady’s career. While Brady got the better of Mahomes when it mattered the most, the Chiefs quarterback has continued building his Hall of Fame credentials and could eventually approach Brady’s resume.

That could be why Brady sees Mahomes as the NFL quarterback most like himself. In an appearance on The Joel Klatt Show this week, Brady shared praise for Mahomes and pointed out the similarities in their game.

Tom Brady Praises Patrick Mahomes’ ‘Winning Attitude’

Brady told Klatt that it’s difficult for him to make a direct comparison to the quarterbacks of today now that he’s no longer in the NFL, but sees a lot of himself in Mahomes.

“From afar, I can only tell so much because if I was in there every day, I could see their habits. It’s always that line about who wants to win versus who’s willing to do whatever it takes to win,” Brady said. “Everyone wants to win, but what are the habits and the daily habits and the actionable things you need to do every day to put your team in a position to win.”

Brady added that Mahomes has the combination of skills and intangibles that he had back in his playing days.

“Patrick Mahomes, to me, is the one that does that the most often because who he is — I mean, obviously his physical talent, how he understands what he needs to do offensively, and he brings a consistent winning attitude to work every single day,” Brady said. “In the biggest moments you can depend on him the most.”

Brady and Mahomes met six times, with Mahomes winning three regular-season meetings and Brady leading the New England Patriots to a win over the Chiefs in the AFC Championship in 2019 and leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win in 2020.

Other Quarterbacks Have Work to Do

Brady said that there are plenty of other talented quarterbacks in the NFL, but they’re all chasing the success Mahomes has already found.

“There’s other guys that are still developing, and they need to prove it before, in my mind, I can say, ‘Oh yeah, he’s done it.’ Well, obviously, he hasn’t done it yet,” Brady said. “They’ve all shown flashes of amazing things. They’re all great players. All of them can make tremendous plays at some point. They need to take the next step and take, in my mind, more ownership of what they’re doing, in terms of the organizational level.”

While many pundits point out that wins and losses are not a quarterback stat, Brady takes a bigger view.

“The quarterback, in many ways, is the CEO of the team, certainly on game day,” he said. “There’s nobody that impacts the game more than the quarterback in NFL football. Now, you have to have the ability and the belief from the entire team, offensively and defensively, that your word means so much.”

Nathan Dougherty is a sports reporter covering the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. Previously he wrote for the Rochester Business Journal and served as the assistant editor of athletic trade magazines Coaching Management, Athletic Management and Training & Conditioning. He is based out of Rochester, New York, and loves everything football. More about Nathan Dougherty