Patrick Mahomes is preparing to play in what he hopes is the first of many Super Bowl appearances as the quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The reigning NFL MVP has two weeks to get ready for a clash with the 49ers and the NFL's top defense on Feb. 2 in Miami. While Mahomes will be deep in the lab over the next two weeks, trying to discover any weakness the 49ers have, the Chiefs star is cognizant of the pitfalls of overpreparation.
"I don't think you can spend too much time watching film," Mahomes told reporters Wednesday. "I think you can spend too much time trying to dissect every single thing. I think there's times where you're playing a team like [the 49ers] where they are playing certain coverages, they play them really well, and you just have to go out there and execute. That's the biggest thing."
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Donte Whitner, who played for the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII against the Baltimore Ravens, doesn't think Mahomes has the proper view on preparation.
"I totally disagree with that," Whitner said on "49ers Central." "I've always been taught that you want to watch as much film, you want to find that one thing or that one detail that might be able to make you make one play to help the team win the football game. So if you have 11 guys on offense and 11 guys on defense picking up that one tip then you're going to be better off than if you don't. So I don't believe in being overprepared. I don't think that we were prepared last time we went to the Super Bowl. We wish we were overprepared."
Sure enough, Whitner and the 49ers fell behind the Ravens 28-6 in Super Bowl XLVII before mounting a furious comeback that ultimately fell short.
There should be little doubt that Mahomes will be grinding over copious amounts of film during the next two weeks. The 49ers' defense has hounded some of the NFL's top quarterbacks this season but did look vulnerable down the stretch. Ever since getting healthy during the playoff bye week, though, the 49ers have looked like the dominant defense we saw during the first two months of the season.
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Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid will need to be on their A-game in order to find consistent success against the 49ers in Miami.
Something few have been able to do this season.
Programming note: NBC Sports Bay Area feeds your hunger for 49ers Super Bowl coverage with special editions of “49ers Central” all week (5:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday; 8:00 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 6:00 p.m. Friday).