The genius in Patrick Mahomes declaring 20-0 as the goal for the Kansas City Chiefs

Of all the uncanny traits that have served Patrick Mahomes so well on the way to becoming a (the?) face of the NFL and transforming the Chiefs from a secondary contender to a perennial favorite, his stunning awareness, endless poise and intrinsic motivation perhaps most animate his considerable sheer talent on the field.

And all of those coalesce in what might well be considered his most telling characteristic: the infinite competitiveness that has defined him since childhood and might lead him to, say, count to 10 on his fingers over a perceived slight by the Chicago Bears and compel offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to call him, well, a “competitive prick.”

That’s why even after leading the Chiefs to back-to-back Super Bowl berths after their 50-season drought and finishing among the NFL’s final four in each of his first three seasons as Kansas City’s QB1, you never have to worry about Mahomes growing complacent.

And that’s why even after the Chiefs were pulverized by Tampa Bay 31-9 in Super Bowl LV in February behind a devastated offensive line that necessitated an extreme makeover, and even after requiring offseason toe surgery from which he reports being largely recovered, Mahomes has embraced raising the standard yet more.

In Hawaii last weekend for his charity golf event, you may have heard, Mahomes was asked, “Are there any records that you have your eyes set on breaking?” Asking the question was Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, Kayla Nicole, on behalf of Coors Light and Bleacher Report.

The only record he had his eye on, Mahomes instantly said, was going 20-0, which would be a first since this is the first season the NFL is expanding to a 17-game regular season.

The Patriots won their first 18 games in the 2007 season before falling to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. And back in the days of the 14-game regular season, the Dolphins went 17-0 in 1972.

Some Chiefs fans might have flinched at that declaration, fretting that it will somehow make the Chiefs more of a target than they already are, or that an early loss or two will make Mahomes rue saying that.

But we think it’s gold, if not genius.

Not as smack-talk to others so much as the message of expectations and urgency it sends to the team, not to mention the bar it raises for him.

Plus, it simply clarifies what we know, anyway:

“I’m not going into the season,” Mahomes said via a media Zoom call on Thursday, “hoping I lose any games.”

Indeed, this was an intentional point made. And there’s something more to it than throwing down a gauntlet and saying “bring it on,” as coach Andy Reid stressed while reiterating that there is no one more competitive or who wants more “new challenges” than Mahomes does.

“He was asked what would be a great challenge for him to work for, so 20-0 made sense,” Reid said, accurately, but perhaps somewhat softening Mahomes’ apparent eagerness to say it. “He wasn’t boasting about it. That’s not what he was doing. He just said that would be a great challenge; it would be: We’ve got a pretty stiff schedule and some great competition we’re going to play against.

“I felt like he was really saying, ‘Listen, we all need to get busy and work our tail(s) off.’ ”

Expanding on the point following Reid, Mahomes basically shrugged and said “if you’re in this league, you want to win every single time you’re on the football field.”

He later added that his response, prompt as it was, also was calibrated to the question he was asked.

“To me, records don’t mean anything if you’re not winning that last game at the end of the season,” he said. “So to me it’s about going in every single week with the mindset that … we’re going to win.

“And at the end of the day, whatever the record is, if it’s 20-0 or whatever it is, if you’re winning that last game of the season, then you’re going to be happy with whatever happened early in the season.”

Chances are the Chiefs won’t go 20-0, though we’ve learned a long time ago never to rule out what Mahomes can do for a team.

But chances sure are they will go back to the Super Bowl. And if so, the trail there includes the mindset that Mahomes is creating as much as it does the rebuilding of the offensive line and rehabilitation of his toe.

It’s just with the quiet part said out loud, something Bieniemy evidently wanted to be asked about before his brief media session ended despite our hopes of getting one more question in.

“I have to say this before I go: I’m disappointed nobody asked me about the 20-0,” he said, laughing.

Maybe he was looking for a chance to use that term he used before about Mahomes’ competitiveness, something we already knew distinguished him but now can see in another way.

“It’s a good challenge,” Reid said. “It’s a good challenge, for sure.”