Last year, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ranked second in Morning Consult’s annual survey identifying the most-liked skill-position players in the NFL, behind only then-New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. With Brees now retired and analyzing games for NBC Sports, the latest research shows that Mahomes has become the league’s most popular player heading into this weekend’s 2022 postseason.
The impact
This year’s NFL playoffs will feature more of fans’ favorite players than last year’s postseason. Of the top 30 players on this year’s list, 23 play for teams whose teams earned a playoff berth, compared to 15 out of the top 30 last season. That’s more good news for a league that already saw viewership increase 10 percent during the regular season and was responsible for 75 of the top 100 most-watched TV programs of the last calendar year.
The latest NFL player favorability poll was conducted Jan. 8-9, 2022, among a representative sample of 513-621 U.S. adults per player, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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