Patrick Mahomes has been on the field for all of training camp, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to be on the field when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Denver Broncos on Monday night in Week 1. Before Mahomes can suit up in the opener, he has to be cleared for game action, which hasn't happened yet. The Chiefs quarterback tore his ACL and LCL back in December, but he wasn't down for long.
By the time spring rolled around, he was cleared to throw passes at OTAs, and when the Chiefs reported to training camp in late July, he was fully cleared to participate in practice. But as the calendar gets ready to turn to September, the Chiefs' medical staff still hasn't given him the OK to play just yet, as noted by ESPN. The last hurdle that Mahomes still needs to overcome is that he has to actually be cleared to play in a game.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid was asked about Mahomes' recovery this week and whether he thought his QB would be ready for the opener and he wasn't ready to committ to the two-time MVP as his starter. "I'm literally taking it day by day. No predictions here on anything," Reid said of Mahomes possibly starting in Week 1.
"If the doctors and trainers and everybody that are involved in this give him the OK, and most of all, if he feels like he can, then we'll address that when we get there." That's not exactly an encouraging answer. The Chiefs will be playing in their their final preseason game on Friday against the Seahawks and Mahomes won't be suiting up, which means that for the first time in his 10-year career, he won't be be taking a single preseason snap. Mahomes wanted to play in the second preseason game, but the Chiefs held him out.
On Monday, Reid was directly asked if Mahomes was held out because he hadn't been fully cleared. "Probably not cleared enough," the Chiefs coach said. With just 18 days to go until the opener, it seems like Mahomes' status for the game is still genuinely up in the air.
After tearing his ligaments on Dec. 14, Mahomes immediately underwent surgery the next day, and he did that because he wanted to be back on the field as soon as possible. Mahomes was told that it would take about nine months for him to rehab, and coincidentally, Kansas City's opener is being played almost nine months to the day that the injury happened. "It's nine months, it's the amount of time [doctors] said from the beginning, that if I did everything the right way, I would be ready to play Week 1," Mahomes said this week, via ESPN.
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