LAS VEGAS — Losing to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in last year’s Super Bowl is clearly in Javon Hargrave’s mind, but he can’t help but wonder what it felt like to lose to him on Sept. 16, 2018. Maybe I haven’t forgotten.
Hargrave joined the Steelers as the unproven Mahomes made his third career start with the Chiefs, before opting out of a three-year contract with the Eagles and signing a $90 million free agent deal with the 49ers this offseason. I was there.
Final score: Chiefs 42 points, Steelers 37 points on Mahomes’ six touchdown passes.
“During the game, no one knew who he was, and we had a plan that said, ‘He’s a young quarterback,’ and what we were going to do to confuse him. That’s what I’m telling everyone,” Hargrave said Tuesday as he prepared for his next matchup. Mahomes in the 2024 Super Bowl. “He came out and killed us the whole game. It seemed like every game plan was torn to pieces by halftime.”
Since then, Mahomes’ legend has only grown, with two Super Bowl come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter.
One was against the 49ers to close out the 2019 season. One was against Hargraves Eagles last season.
So Hargrave shares a sense of unfinished business and a need to exorcise the Mahomes-shaped ghost with his 49ers teammates who had to wait so long for a rematch.
“I never want to feel that feeling of getting to this game and losing,” Hargrave said. “I just want to feel the other side of the feeling of victory instead of just being sad.”
Hargrave is not one for the cliché of “living in the moment.”
He still hasn’t shaken up his last game against the Eagles.
“It definitely hurt,” Hargrave said. “You always think about how bad that day was. You still haven’t really gotten over it.”
Like the Eagles a year ago, the 49ers’ strength lies in their defensive line.
Instead of joining Haason Reddick, Brandon Graham, Josh Sweat, and Fletcher Cox on defensemen with 70 sacks (two shy of the NFL single-season record), Hargrave will join Nick Bosa, Chase Young, Clelin Ferrell is causing havoc among Arik. Armstead. He has recorded 18 sacks over the past two seasons combined.
“’Grave is a dog,” Young said. “Great arm, knows how to use leverage very well. He does a lot of things to stop the run and rush the passer. I think he’s a great defensive tackle.”
Hargrave is one of four defensive tackles signed to contracts worth at least $87.5 million last offseason, along with the Giants’ Dexter Lawrence, the Jets’ Quinnen Williams, the Titans’ Jeffery Simmons and the Commanders’ Daron Paye. He is the only one who has transferred from one team to another. why?
“Money was important,” Hargrave said frankly. “And just win. When you’re in the NFL, you want to compete at the highest level and play in games like this.”
Completing Hargrave’s resume will come in the way of arch-rivals Mahomes and the Chiefs.
“We knew then [2018] He’s going to be special in this game,” Hargrave said. “That’s what everyone thought.”
