Patrick Mahomes sees himself turning the corner amid a slow start, even as the Chiefs are 4-0

Patrick Mahomes has been through self-described slumps before, including last year, when the Chiefs struggled so mightily late in the season that some were calling them a long shot to win another Super Bowl title.

Then the two-time league MVP played his best football in the postseason, and they won a second straight championship.

So even though Mahomes has not played well during a 4-0 start heading into Monday night's game against New Orleans — by his own lofty standards, anyway — he knows things can change in a hurry. The important thing is to continue working on the details, all those small but often overlooked things, and keep the confidence that he has been through this before.

"That's what I learned last year," Mahomes told a small group of reporters Wednesday. "I obviously went through a slump where I didn't play as good at the end of last year, and I just continued to work on it in practice. And in the playoffs, I thought I played a very high level. And so that's what I've been focusing on right now."

Indeed, Mahomes threw for his fewest yards in a full season in six years as a starter last regular season, along with his fewest touchdown passes and most interceptions.

Yet when the playoffs rolled around, Mahomes completed nearly 70% of his passes, threw six TD passes against one interception, and led Kansas City to wins over Miami, Buffalo and Baltimore.

In the Super Bowl against San Francisco, he threw for 333 yards with two TDs and was MVP of the Chiefs' overtime victory.

That all provides optimism for the rest of this season.

Mahomes has so far played perhaps his worst four-game stretch as an NFL starter, throwing for 909 yards with six TD passes and five interceptions. And he knows it, too, insisting after