Actually Mahomes contract is starting to not look so bad now. He is the 5th highest paid QB and when they get into cap difficulty, they will just keep on restructuring until some of that cap hit is taken after Mahomes retires.
At the end of the reg season, you just have to look at the top 3 QB in each conference and it's almost a guarantee that 1 of the 3 is in the SB. And yes Stafford with Kupp and Mcvay was the 3rd best QB in the NFC last year.
In the AFC, it's Mahomes, Allen, and then whoever else is playing good that year.