Patrick Mahomes' 2025 season ended on the lowest of notes as he suffered a torn ACL that prematurely ended an already-down year. But as offseason preparations for the 2026 NFL season continue, Mahomes is apparently making great strides towards playing sooner than expected.
In an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said that Mahomes is "way ahead of schedule" in his recovery. He joked that the bigger concern the team has right now is making sure Mahomes is protected from himself and doesn't overdo it by mistake.
“I will say this, I think it wouldn’t surprise you guys, the way it’s been really inspiring to just see — in my mind, I’ve been there before with Pat, he had that dislocated knee [in 2019] and worked his tail off, and came back in three weeks. I knew this bump in the road wouldn’t slow him down at all,” Veach said. “But, I mean, this guy has been in the building — especially for a player who has accomplished everything, can do anything he wants, he can hire his own trainers, he can be wherever he wants. He’s in our building every single day. And even when he goes away for a few days, say to Dallas for a weekend with his family, he takes one of our trainers with him.
“So, needless to say, he’s way ahead of schedule. I think the biggest challenge we’re going to have is protecting him against himself, because I’m sure when we get to St. Joseph, Missouri, for training camp, he’s going to want to be full go. But we’re going to have to hold him back a little. And, again, I don’t want to put a timetable on it. But I think you guys know the kind of person and competitor Pat is, and I would just say, we’re in a really good place right now.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid similarly said that Mahomes is on pace to join the team on a limited basis for their OTAs at the end of this month.
For an injury that often takes upwards of six to nine months for recovery, that's an incredible turnaround time.
Too incredible to believe?
NFL fans have been debating for a while whether Mahomes' impending comeback is as miraculous as it sounds. Some have doubted the sincerity of the injury from the get-go, while others suspect that even if he is "healthy," he won't be as dominant as he once was.
"He may be healthy. Not sure if he has that "it" in him anymore," one user remarked on X.
"He faked the injury so his HOF stats wouldn’t be affected," another wrote.
"Yeah I’m crazy skeptical of this injury. I believe he was banged up, maybe needed his knee scoped. But they just wanted to shut him down after they were eliminated and used the knee as the excuse why," wrote a third.
© Amy Kontras-Imagn Images.
"We knew in December he would be healed by the start of the season. These injures aren’t serious anymore with the medical tech available."
2025 may have been a comparatively down year for Mahomes, but it seems a little too early to totally write him off forever given how long some QBs are playing these days.
Lest we forget, quarterbacks who have dealt with serious injuries like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford and Peyton Manning have all gone on to have some of the best years of their career long after the worst ones.
