As far as healing his ACL injury was concerned, Patrick Mahomes had one goal in mind: to start walking before his youngest child took her first steps. In the initial stages of recovery, not being able to get up and chase his kids around like he used to before was motivation enough. But Mahomes, ever the competitor, had to beat 11-month-old Golden to it. 

Working diligently with athletic trainer Julie Frymyer, he did it. Once the basic movement was secured, Mahomes worked toward rebuilding his muscle strength and protection around the freshly grafted ligaments. By the time the Chiefs held their OTA sessions, Patrick Mahomes returned to the field, planting, throwing, and moving inside a pocket, but did not play a single preseason game. That didn’t look promising. But now, Andy Reid has a positive update on Mahomes’ return date.

“Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes will start Monday night vs. the #Broncos barring a surprise setback this week, per HC Andy Reid. That means Mahomes is set to make his return exactly 9 months after undergoing ACL surgery,” NFL insider Ari Meirov reported on X.
But after an injury that once threatened to sideline him until October, is Mahomes really ready? One look at the full picture could convince you otherwise.

The scare began on December 14, 2025, when Mahomes’ season came to an abrupt end against the Los Angeles Chargers. Kansas City entered the Week 15 matchup at 6-7, still fighting to keep its season alive, when Mahomes scrambled near his own sideline late in the fourth quarter. As he tried to extend the play, Chargers defensive end Da’Shawn Hand spun him to the ground, and Mahomes’ left leg buckled awkwardly underneath him.

The initial diagnosis confirmed a torn ACL in his left knee, but that was not the entire extent of the damage. Further evaluation revealed that Mahomes had also torn his LCL. He underwent reconstructive surgery in Dallas the following day, with Dr. Dan Cooper performing the procedure. The injury ended his season after 14 games, making it the first time in his career that an injury had forced him to miss the remainder of a regular season.

Yet the initial medical picture offered some reason for optimism. Chiefs vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder said the damaged ligaments were “fixable,” while noting that Mahomes had not suffered damage to an artery, nerve, joint surface or meniscus. Burkholder projected a recovery of roughly nine months, although he stressed that the timeline could vary by several months depending on the individual, the sport and the player’s position.

That nine-month mark made Week 1 an obvious target, but it was never a guarantee. In fact, doctors initially cautioned Mahomes that his return could stretch into October. For a quarterback whose game depends heavily on movement, planting and improvisation, simply being able to throw again was not enough. His left knee would have to withstand the demands of an NFL game before the Chiefs could confidently put him back under center.

Mahomes attacked that process with the same urgency he had shown during previous injury recoveries. Rather than spending the offseason at his Texas home, he remained in Kansas City and spent much of his time at the Chiefs’ facility working with Frymyer. His days were built around rehabilitation, with even small milestones becoming meaningful. The first was walking. Once he cleared that hurdle, the focus shifted toward restoring strength and stability around the repaired ligaments.

By March, Mahomes was publicly showing progress throwing and putting weight through his recovering leg. Then came the Chiefs’ OTA sessions on May 26–28 and June 1–3, when he was back on the field planting, throwing and moving inside the pocket.

“It’s good to be back on the field and just be with the guys, more than anything. Some of those days you’re rehabbing with yourself, or with a couple of guys, and you get a little juice when the other guys are out there,” Mahomes said after the sessions.

The next question was whether the knee could handle football at full speed. Mahomes continued practicing through training camp and, by late July, had been fully cleared for all football activities. That was a significant step: the Chiefs were no longer simply watching him rehabilitate; they were watching him function as their quarterback again.

Still, Kansas City did not put him into a preseason game. Mahomes sat out all three exhibition contests, despite having regularly played in the preseason throughout his career outside of the pandemic-altered 2020 season. The decision was deliberate. With Mahomes already progressing toward Week 1, the Chiefs had little incentive to expose a surgically repaired knee to unnecessary preseason contact.

That patience also has to be viewed against Mahomes’ history. He has repeatedly returned from injuries faster than initial expectations suggested. In 2019, a dislocated kneecap was initially expected to sideline him for at least three games, but he returned after missing two. Four years later, he suffered a high ankle sprain in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, spent the following week undergoing intensive rehabilitation and returned for the AFC Championship Game before playing through the injury again in the Super Bowl.

But the ACL/LCL injury was different. Mahomes had missed only four games because of injury before 2025, and none of his previous injuries had ended his season. This time, surgery was unavoidable; his regular season stopped at 14 games, and the Chiefs had to prepare for a future without their quarterback while he spent months rebuilding his knee. Kansas City went on to lose its final three games and finish 6-11, missing the playoffs for the first time in the Mahomes era.

Now, nine months after that surgery, the Chiefs are prepared to trust the recovery. On Tuesday, Andy Reid offered his strongest indication yet that Mahomes will start against Denver.

“As far as our roster goes, pretty good chance that Patrick will go ahead and start, unless something were to come up here in the next couple days. Most likely he’ll be the guy that’s out there,” Reid said.

Reid added another detail that may matter more than the absence of a preseason appearance: “Other than having a brace on his leg, everything looks normal. He’s running around the same way he’s always done. I think he’ll be fine there.”

That is the Chiefs’ argument for putting Mahomes back on the field. He has practiced without missing time since the start of training camp, has worked with the first team and has progressed beyond some of the more cautious early projections. The lingering concern is not that Mahomes has suffered a fresh setback; it is that his first real game back will come only nine months after reconstructive surgery on two major knee ligaments.

And that makes Monday night more revealing than the preseason ever could have been. Mahomes has already proved he can recover. What remains to be seen is whether the repaired left knee will allow him to play the same improvisational, free-moving game that has made him so difficult to defend.