Mahomes underwent surgery in mid-December to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee, and said during a Zoom call Thursday that his rehab is “hitting all the checkpoints” that could allow him to return to summer workouts and perhaps even training camp this fall.
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“I want to be ready for Week 1. The doctors said I can,” Mahomes said, “but I can’t predict what’s going to happen throughout the whole process. That’s the goal, to play Week 1 and have no restrictions. You want to be healthy and give us the best chance to win. I hope to do some things in OTAs and in training camp and be able to do things there.”
Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL on Dec. 14 in the final minutes of a loss to the Chargers, which effectively eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention. Initially, Mahomes said, he didn’t think the injury was too serious, and even pressured the training staff to put some type of brace on his knee so he could finish the game.
It wasn’t until an MRI revealed 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 an injury of this type is about nine months, although it can vary several months depending on various factors. The next season is expected to begin on September 10, 2026, and the Chiefs could play their first game a few days later.
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“What I discovered through this process is that not every day is going to be amazing,” Mahomes said. “You have to have someone you trust who can bring out the best in you, but who will 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 will also travel to Dallas for checkups with Dr. Cooper and his staff.
“What my doctor told me is that obviously I had the ACL and ACL, but everything else was clear,” Mahomes said in his first comments since the injury. “As bad as it was, it was as clean as it could be. There are a lot of little things that could happen around that knee that I didn’t know about. So now it’s just a matter of rehabbing and fixing the ACL and the right ACL.”
This has proven to be a challenge. Frymyer and Cooper have given Mahomes certain benchmarks to reach, and he constantly wants to go a little further, although he also understands the risks of trying to come back too quickly.
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“Knowing me, I’m going to take it to the exact limit every day,” Mahomes said. “There are places you can’t go yet. You want to go but you can’t go yet. And they do it for a reason. It starts with Dr. Cooper and his team, and Julie and the training room.”
The Chiefs could look very different when Mahomes returns to the field. Now they just have to make major decisions about their roster, they could also have a new offensive coordinator with Matt Nagy interviewing for multiple head coaching jobs.
However, the change could be welcome for an offense that struggled mightily last season, and was a big reason why Kansas City saw its nine-year AFC West title streak end and missed the playoffs entirely for the first time in a decade.
“I know Coach (Andy) Reid, if Coach Nagy can get another head coaching job, he’ll have a good plan on 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 day. That’s something you have to do if you want to be great in this league.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl