Patrick Mahomes provided an update about his recovery after suffering a season-ending torn ACL and LCL in his left leg in December 2025 — indicating that things are very much still a work in progress.
“It’s going good. It’s a long process,” Mahomes, 30, said Wednesday, July 15, on Yahoo! Sports Daily. “I think that’s what I’ve learned throughout this entire thing. All I can do is be as great as I can be every single day. You just have to maximize that day and then slowly get better and better as the year goes on.”
He continued, “We’ve had a great recovery program going these last few months and we’re in a good spot. Now it’s just about trying to continue to do that so that I’m ready to go whenever the season comes around.”
Mahomes maintained it is still his “goal” to be ready when the Kansas City Chiefs open the 2026 season at home against the Denver Broncos on September 14.
“I can’t predict the future and I know that it’s a long process,” he said. “It’s not just my decision. But at the same time, I’m going to give the doctors and the coaches every single opportunity they can to let me be out there Week 1. I don’t want to miss that game.”
Mahomes added, “I’m excited to get back to training camp. I’m excited to get the guys back around. I’ve kind of been in the building in Kansas City by myself. Just having the guys back and getting to be back on the football field will kind of get me going in order to get ready for the season.”
The Chiefs kick off their training camp on July 29 at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri.
“We’ve got new faces, we’ve got old faces,” Mahomes said. “We got new coaches. We’ve gotten a lot of things added to the team this year. Now it’s about proving who we are.”
The Chiefs are looking to rebound from a disappointing season that saw them fail to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Combine that with his injury, Mahomes was dropped from the top spot of a recently released ESPN list of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, which polled executives, coaches and scouts from around the league.
“You understand it coming off injury and we didn’t play as well as we wanted to the last few years,” Mahomes acknowledged. “You’re gonna drop in the rankings of some sort. But at the same time, there’s a lot of good quarterbacks on that list. I’m just happy to be a part of it, you know. You have to go out and prove it every single year, so it’s my job this year to prove why I can jump up in the list back to No. 1.”
Mahomes, who fell to No. 2, was jumped by Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen for the top spot. The top five was rounded out by Matthew Stafford, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, in that order.
“You’re going to deal with adversity,” Mahomes said. “I think that’s something that I knew going into every season that I play. You start 0-0 and you have to go out there and do it again.”
