Five months ago, on December 14, 2025, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL, turning his offseason into a race against one of football’s most unforgiving recovery timelines. Medically speaking, ACL recovery often takes nine to twelve months, and the added LCL repair can make the process even more cautious because the outside of the knee has to be strong enough to tolerate stress again. Even elite athletes are still bound by biology. But with Mahomes, there was always that one lingering thought: if anyone was going to push the limits of that timeline, it was probably him.

There had already been enough signs that Mahomes was trending in the right direction. Brett Veach had spoken about him being ahead of schedule, Andy Reid had made it clear there had been no setbacks, and Mahomes himself had kept Week 1 as the target. He had also given fans one small look at his progress back in late March, when he posted a short clip of himself inside a training gym, taking a five-step dropback at a moderate tempo before releasing a pass. Now, the Chiefs have added another piece to that picture.

Through an Instagram post, the Chiefs offered a glimpse into Mahomes’ stance at the OTA on Tuesday. It marked his first on-field work with teammates since suffering the most significant injury of his career. The visual showed the star quarterback making a throw. But the one thing that caught most fans’ eyes was a hinged brace on his surgically repaired left knee. Athletes use such braces for dynamic stability rather than acute injury immobilization, and that’s a completely standard process following a ligament reconstruction. Still, for Mahomes to be back in a team practice setting less than five and a half months after surgery was notable on its own.

The Chiefs GM Brett Veach previously claimed that Mahomes was operating well ahead of his recovery schedule. The exact extent of his participation on Tuesday remains unknown because the session was closed to reporters. But his mere presence on the practice field is certainly a positive indicator. Nevertheless, the clearer picture is expected to come Thursday, when reporters will be allowed to watch Kansas City’s next open OTA practice.

“This has been one of the more important dates of the Chiefs’ offseason, with Mahomes recovering and rehabbing,” ESPN’s Nate Taylor observed. “What’s interesting here is that we will see Mahomes on Thursday, the Chiefs’ final OTAs practice of the week. What’s fascinating about him is that the Chiefs have not put out much video on Mahomes training or rehab. So what we see on Thursday will be the first real indication of how much progress he has made.” 

There’s still one question that’s been bugging many, though: how exactly did Patrick Mahomes manage to accelerate his brutal recovery timeline? He established a Week 1 return as an uncompromising mission. He grinded through intense daily sessions under guidance from Julie Frymyer, one of the Chiefs’ top athletic trainers. Mahomes has spent much of his rehab inside the Chiefs’ training facility, often working with Frymyer, who has also helped him through previous injuries during his career.

“I want to be ready for Week 1. The doctors said I could, but I can’t predict what happens throughout the process,” Mahomes previously told ESPN. “That’s the goal, to play Week 1 and have no restrictions. You want to be out there healthy and give us the best chance to win. I hope to do some things in OTAs and training camp and be able to do things there.”  

This isn’t the first time Mahomes defied medical logic. Back in 2019, he dislocated his knee. But he worked his way through recovery and bounced back in just three weeks. That’s why the team’s general manager knew that Mahomes wasn’t really going to slow the team down with his latest injury. And even though he’s planning to hold him back a bit, Veach stood in support of the QB’s work ethic. 

“I don’t want to speak for Rick Burkholder, our [head] trainer, and I’m not a doctor, but it has been just an awesome experience to see exactly how Pat Mahomes has attacked this rehab process,” the general manager said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. “He is in this building [from] 7 [a.m.] to 3 or 4 [p.m.] every single day. If he goes to Texas for a few days, he takes one of our assistant trainers with him.” 

Head coach Andy Reid also provided a crucial update on how the team plans to handle the quarterback during the current spring practices. 

“If he can do some things, [he’ll do it]. Phase 2 [of the offseason program], remember, there’s no contact, and there’s no offense versus defense,” Reid explained to ESPN’s Nate Taylor earlier this month. “It’s Phase 3 that you get into that… He’s in a position where he can do everything, I think.” 

Reid firmly added that Mahomes hasn’t suffered a single setback and physically improves every single day. That matters because Tuesday marked the start of Phase 3, the portion of the offseason program where teams can finally move into on-field OTA work. Even then, this is still spring football, not a full-contact game environment, so the Chiefs’ optimism has not turned into a final declaration. Still, the anticipation for visual proof continues to build for the fanbase. But do the Chiefs have a Plan B in case Mahomes fails to deliver?

Andy Reid has a backup plan in place in case Patrick Mahomes fails to deliver

Despite the overwhelming optimism radiating from the Kansas City facility, the front office was fully prepared for the worst-case scenario. If Mahomes’ knee simply refuses to cooperate by September, Reid has an emergency plan firmly in place. Veach traded Justin Fields in as the backup for Mahomes. 

“We snuck out and got a good quarterback to back [Mahomes] up,” Reid stated, referencing the team’s acquisition of Fields. “If [Mahomes is] not able to make it for the beginning of the season, then we know we’ve got a legitimate backup there that can go win games for us.

“It’s a day-to-day thing, and as long as he keeps making progress forward, maybe we’ll have a chance to see him in the first game. But we’ll play that as we go.”

As Mahomes pushes to defy medical odds for a Week 1 return, the Chiefs will continue to monitor his rehabilitated knee. For now, the strongest takeaway is not that he is fully back, but that every public checkpoint has moved in the right direction: surgery in December, throwing work by March, team-field activity by May, and a Week 1 target still alive. Meanwhile, Reid is keeping the newly acquired QB on standby as the team’s vital championship insurance.