Patrick Mahomes Gets Bombshell Injury Update That No One Saw Coming

Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL in December.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes underwent successful surgery in December to repair a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee. He sustained the injury during the Week 15 loss to the Chargers. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as it all but solidified that the team was going to miss the playoffs.

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He began rehabilitation immediately with a typical recovery timeline of eight months, putting his return for the start of the 2026 season in focus.

Now, it appears that the league should be very afraid of when he will be back on the field.

Chiefs Get Good News on Patrick Mahomes’ Injury Return

Patrick Mahomes. Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images
The Kansas City Chiefs’ 2026 season hinges on how much time quarterback Patrick Mahomes misses. His season-ending torn ACL and LCL suffered last year were immediately projected to be an extended recovery process that could delay his start to the 2026 campaign.

Fox Sports NFL Insider Jay Glazer appeared as a guest on the Dan Patrick Show recently to weigh in on Mahomes’ recovery. Glazer reports that Mahomes is already way ahead of schedule and just might be ready to go at the start of the season.

“His pain threshold is different, his work ethic is different,” Glazer said on the “Dan Patrick Show.”

“So at first they were like, ‘Oh, you know, start of the season.’ I would probably hedge on him being [back] sooner than that. By far. Because he just attacks things.”

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The NFL insider further noted that Patrick Mahomes’s undergoing the surgery almost immediately after his knee swelled up is a major factor in his recovery timeline. “The initial reports were kind of on the fringe there, but I want to tell you, Patrick’s different,” Glazer added.

“He got (the surgery) before it swelled up. So, that was on a Tuesday. I believe it was either Thursday or Friday that week, he was already in the Chiefs’ training room doing rehab. And he had already got his knee bending at 90 degrees at that point. He’s just different, he heals differently.”

ACL recoveries typically have a 12-month recovery timeline, but advances in medicine have shortened that timeline in recent years. Mahomes’ surgery was performed by Dr. Dan Cooper, the Dallas Cowboys’ team physician.

He finished the 2025 season with 22 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions in 14 games before the knee injury. He also rushed for 422 yards and five touchdowns.