Could Patrick Mahomes be ready for Week 1? It seems way too early to tell.
Patrick Mahomes is done for the season and so are the Kansas City Chiefs. Now the question is how much the quarterback's torn ACL will affect the 2026 season.
Rick Burkholder, the Chiefs' vice president of sports medicine and performance, addressed that question with reporters on Wednesday, two days after Mahomes went under the knife for both a torn ACL and LCL. He projected optimism that Mahomes would enjoy a successful rehab, with a very loose recovery timeline of nine months:
"Every player is different. Every sport's different. Every position is different. With him, traditionally, he's going after it so hard and he's so in tune with what he does, he does it a little quicker. Ballpark on this is nine months. Could be a month or two less, a month or two more. You never know what goes on and everyone's designed biomechanically, and so you just have to go through it.
A timeline of nine months from Monday would fall on Sept. 15, five days after the NFL is scheduled to begin the 2026 season. That makes the give-or-take of two months quite consequential.
On the quicker end, Mahomes could be ready for Week 1 with time to spare. On the slower end, he doesn't make his debut until November. Given how important the 30-year-old is to the future of the franchise, it has every reason to be cautious.
That makes this offseason a tricky one for a Kansas City team at a crossroads. After years of contending and winning, the wheels came off in 2025 and putting them back on again likely means some significant roster changes for the team. If Mahomes isn't playing, that's all the more reason to approach 2026 as a rebuilding year.
Burkholder said Mahomes' injury didn't come with anything more concerning than the torn ligaments, and revealed the quarterback has already started rehab:
"They said that everything he had in this injury was fixable, correctable. And it was fixed on Monday night by Dr. Cooper. He had no artery damage, no nerve damage, no joint surface damage, no meniscal damage. He's already started rehab down in Dallas. He was there first thing Tuesday morning and he'll do that through tomorrow. Then he'll be back here Friday."
As Mahomes makes his way back, the Chiefs will officially end their season with games against the Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders.
Category: General Sports
