The Chiefs quarterback looks like he’s on track to play Week 1.
It’s a pretty slow period in the NFL offseason right now, which makes it the perfect time for big-name stars to post videos of their workouts for sports media outlets to write about. Case in point: Patrick Mahomes throwing a football for the first time On Wednesday afternoon, Mahomes shared a short video on his Instagram Stories in which he was seen doing drills in an indoor facility and tossing a football around.
He was wearing what looked like a sleeve on his left leg, which was the one he injured in last season’s loss to the Chargers.The Chiefs’ social team reshared his video to X :It’s the latest upbeat social media post from Mahomes, who has been nothing but optimistic since suffering the worst injury of his NFL career thus far. The Chiefs quarterback underwent surgery for his left knee in December, his ACL and LCL. A month later, Mahomes told reporters he was progressing well in his rehab journey and planning to be ready to take the field by Week 1 of the 2026 season. “I think, the long-term ... I want to be ready for Week 1, the doctor said that I could be, but I can’t predict what’s going to happen throughout the process. That’s my goal. I’ll try to prepare myself to be ready to play in Week 1, and have no restrictions,”Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’s recovery timeline: Will he be ready for Week 1 of 2026 season? Mahomes, who suffered his season-ending ACL injury on Dec. 14 of last year, has insisted that he was aiming to be ready by Week 1. Just how feasible is that recovery timeline? Typically, recovery from ACL surgery takes nine months. That number was confirmed by Chiefs vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder,Given that Mahomes underwent surgery nearly right away to kickstart his rehab process as soon as possible, he could return to action around mid-September, which would be the Week 2 or 3 mark of the 2026 season. If things go better than expected, Mahomes could realistically shave off a week or so and suit up for Week 1; if things take a turn for the worse, the Chiefs may have to rely onThe three-time Super Bowl champ ended last season on one of his worst ever campaigns with 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and nine of his picks came in the second half of the year when the Chiefs were still fighting for a playoff spot. After finishing third in the AFC West and missing the postseason for the first time in the Mahomes era, the Chiefs will be looking to reclaim their spot on the league’s throne—and they’ll indubitably need a fully healthy Mahomes to do so.Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020 and has a bachelor’s in English and linguistics from Columbia University. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. She is a lifelong Liverpool fan who enjoys solving crossword puzzles and hanging out at her neighborhood dive bar in NYC.
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