ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes cleared another checkpoint in his recovery from a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee when he received the green light from his surgeon to return to full football activities for the opening of Chiefs’ training camp
“It was always the goal to be able to practice when we got to training camp, and so we’ve kind of hit that next step,” Mahomes said Friday as he arrived with the team’s quarterbacks, rookies and select veterans. “And now it’s just going to be about building and keep getting better and better, and so that whenever the regular season comes around, I can try to be available and ready to play.”
Neither Mahomes nor coach Andy Reid definitely declared the superstar the starter for Week 1, but it was hard for the coach to disguise his pleasure at his signal caller’s progress.
“I’m optimistic, and I know he is extremely optimistic,” Reid said Friday. “But I think you’ve got to see how things go here. Let’s just see where we’re at, and not make any predictions or anything else. Take it day by day and see where it goes.”
Mahomes said he received full clearance to return to action earlier this week from Dr. Dan Cooper, an orthopedic specialist in reconstructive knee surgeries involving the ACL, PCL and collateral ligaments. Cooper performed the surgery on Dec. 15 in Dallas, just one day after the injury.
“I was able to go down and meet with Dr. Cooper, and just kind of go through the stuff like that, and then him seeing the numbers and stuff that I’ve been putting up,” Mahomes explained. “He gave me the comfortability to let me go out there and be fully cleared to practice.”
Mahomes gave credit to a few fellow players for sharing their advice with him on coming back from similar injuries. The list includes former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, as well as a former Chiefs teammate, safety Tyrann Mathieu. He spoke a lot with Washington Commanders tight end Zach Ertz, who tore the ACL in his right knee in Week 14, just one week before Mahomes’ injury. Ever the competitor, Mahomes challenged Ertz regularly as they pushed one another through the rehab process.
“It would start off as like, how much deadlift, what you’re deadlifting, where you’re at, and then it’s like you send little videos,” Mahomes said. “He’s jumping and doing certain acceleration things, and I’m like sending him next week doing cutting and stuff like that, and so it keeps the competition going because it’s a long process, and you feel like sometimes you’re you’re lonely because you’re you’re doing stuff by yourself and you’re just competing against yourself, so it gave me someone that else that I can compete with to kind of push my competitive drive.”
Reid said he expects Mahomes to handle the usual workload reserved for the No. 1 quarterback. Mahomes was limited during offseason workouts, sitting out all full 11-on-11 periods.
“The nice thing about having this rookie camp is you can kind of gradually build it up, and then he gets a day off normally that third day anyway,” Reid said. “So we’ll get an idea where he’s at there. But he’s been working so hard. You have a pretty good feel that he’s in a good place.”
It’s been 222 days, or 7 months and 10 days, since Mahomes tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee in the Week 15 game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Rick Burkholder, the team’s vice president of sports medicine and performance, said on Dec. 16 that the “ballpark (for recovery) on this thing is nine months.”
The Chiefs host the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football in Week 1 on Sept. 14, nine months to the day of his injury.
“It could be a month or two less, or a month or two more,” Burkholder said. “You never know what goes on, and everybody is designed differently mechanically, so you just have to go through it, and then he’s got position-specific things that he needs to do.”
Returning to football activity is another checkpoint, but Mahomes also understands there’s more work to be done in 2026 and beyond
“The process isn’t over,” he said. It’ll be something I’ll probably deal with for the next few years of my career and throughout the rest of my career, but you have to stay on top of that stuff. But I feel comfortable now being able to go out there and run the offense the way the offense is supposed to be run.”
Mahomes reiterated that his goal is to be on the field as his team embarks on a comeback performance to wipe away the bitter aftertaste of last year’s 6-11 campaign.
“I feel like I wasn’t playing my best football at the end of last year before I got hurt,” Mahomes said. “So I got to find ways to get better, kind of navigating the pocket, run the offense better, getting the ball in my hands, and letting other guys make plays. And so I think this injury helped me kind of focus on those little things as I kind of get back to being who I am.”
