Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes 40-yard dash time: Which NFL icon comes out on top?

Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes are two of the best players to pass a football. Brady enjoyed a stellar 23-year career with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Mahomes is currently building his legacy with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Brady and Mahomes will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but that doesn't mean that either player was a sought after prospect entering the league. In fact, both QBs needed to excel at the NFL Combine to give teams reasons for selecting them.

With that in mind, let's take a trip down memory lane and check out the NFL icon with the faster 40-yard dash.

Tom Brady's 40-yard dash time

Tom Brady ran the 40-yard dash in 5.28 seconds. His dash was noted as the second slowest time among quarterbacks at the 2000 Scouting Combine.

Brady was fresh off his senior year with the Michigan Wolverines and was viewed as a Day 2 or 3 pick by scouts. His performance at the Combine did not help his case to get selected in the early rounds.

Brady ran the 20-yard shuttle in 4.38 seconds and recorded a vertical jump of 24.5 inches. He was later selected by the New England Patriots with that 199th pick of the 2000 NFL draft, and the rest is history.

Patrick Mahomes' 40-yard dash time

Patrick Mahomes ran the 40-yard dash in 4.80 seconds. The Texas Tech product also ran the 10-yard split in 1.65 seconds, the 20-yard split in 2.80 seconds, the 20-yard shuttle in 4.08 seconds, and the three-cone drill in 6.88 seconds.

Furthermore, Mahomes recorded a 30 inches vertical jump and 9-foot-6 broad jump. The Kansas City Chiefs selected him with the 10th pick of the 2017 draft.

Which NFL icon comes out on top?

Patrick Mahomes had the faster 40-yard dash time in this contest of future Hall of Famer quarterbacks. Mahomes was significantly quicker than Brady when he ran the dash 17 years after the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

While Mahomes is undoubtedly faster than Brady, he still has a long way to go before he can surpass Brady in the GOAT conversation. Brady has more MVPs, Super Bowls, and Pro Bowl nods when compared to his Kansas City Chiefs counterpart.

Tom Brady was never the most mobile quarterback in the game, he didn't have to be. Instead his game was predicated on finding pass catchers with razor like precision, and walking down opposing teams with startling consistency. It'll take a lot for another QB to match his decades of dominance but if anyone is able to then it could be Mahomes.