KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Injured quarterback Patrick Mahomes intends to be ready when the Kansas City Chiefs play their opener in the NFL’s 2026 regular season.
Mahomes had surgery in mid-December to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee, and he said during a Zoom call Thursday that his rehab is “hitting all the checkpoints” that could get him back for summer workouts during the organized team activities portion of the offseason and perhaps even training camp in August.
“I want to be ready for week one,” Mahomes said. “The doctors said I could, but I can’t predict what happens throughout the process. That’s the goal, to play week one and have no restrictions. You want to be out there healthy and give us the best chance to win. I hope to do some things in OTAs and training camp and be able to do things there.”
Mahomes tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee on Dec. 14 in the waning minutes of a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, which effectively eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention, ending a run of 10 straight appearances in the postseason that included five Super Bowl trips and three NFL titles for the franchise.
Initially, Mahomes said, he didn’t think the injury was too severe, and he even lobbied the training staff to put some kind of brace on his knee so that he could finish the game. It wasn’t until an MRI afterward revealed the torn ligaments that Mahomes knew his season was over.
The procedure to repair them was performed about 24 hours later by well-known orthopedist Dr. Dan Cooper in Dallas. The recovery time for such an injury is close to nine months, though it could vary by several months, depending on various factors.
The NFL’s 2026 regular season is expected to kick off with a single game on Sept. 10, and that Thursday night matchup has typically been hosted by the reigning Super Bowl champion for more than two decades — so while Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium obviously won’t be the site of the game, the Chiefs could play as soon as then. Either way, they would be in action within a few days.
“What I’ve found out through this process is not every day is going to feel amazing,” Mahomes said. “You have to have somebody you trust that’s going to get the best out of you, but that’s going to keep you safe.”
Mahomes has been doing most of his rehab in Kansas City with Chiefs physical therapist Julie Frymyer, who has helped him recover from other, less significant injuries in the past. Mahomes also will travel to Dallas for checks with Dr. Cooper and his staff.
“What I got from my doctor is obviously I had the ACL and the LCL but everything else was clean,” Mahomes said in his first comments since the injury. “As bad as it was, it was as clean as it could be. There’s a lot of little things that could happen around that knee that I didn’t know. So now it’s just about rehabbing and getting the ACL and the LCL right.”
That has proven to be a challenge. Cooper and Frymyer have given Mahomes certain benchmarks to hit, and he constantly wants to push just a little bit further, though he also understands the risks in trying to get back too quickly.
“Knowing me, I’m going to push it to the exact limit every single day,” Mahomes said. “There’s places you can’t go yet. You want to, but you can’t go yet. And they’re doing it for a reason. It starts with Dr. Cooper and his team, and Julie and the training room.”
The Chiefs could look very different on Mahomes’ side of the ball when he gets back on the field. Not only do they have major roster decisions to make, they also could have a new offensive coordinator with Matt Nagy interviewing for multiple head coaching jobs.
Yet change could be welcome for an offense that struggled mightily last season — and was one of the principle reasons why Kansas City had its nine-year streak of AFC West Division titles end and missed the playoffs completely for the first time in a decade.
“I know Coach (Andy) Reid, if Coach Nagy is able to get another head coaching job, he’ll have a good plan of who he wants to bring in,” Mahomes said. “I just want someone who loves football, cares about football, wants to give everything they can to win, and brings new ideas every single day. That’s something you have to do if you want to be great in this league.”