The timing of Patrick Mahomes’ season-ending knee injury, which took the quarterback MVP in Week 15, would normally put a game in Week 1 the following season. Patrick Mahomes is not normal.
General manager Brett Veach told SiriusXM NFL Radio that Mahomes is “way ahead of schedule” in his rehab.
“I don’t think it’ll surprise you, how it’s been very encouraging just to see — my mind, I’ve been there before with Pat, he had that sprained knee and took his tail off and came back in three weeks. I knew that bump in the road wasn’t going to slow him down at all. But I mean, this guy has been in the building — especially as a player that he can recruit and can do whatever he wants. His own coach and be wherever he wants; he’s in our building every single day. Even when he goes to Dallas for a weekend, for example, he takes one of our coaches with him. So needless to say, he’s way ahead of schedule, and again, I don’t want to put a timetable on it, but I think you know what a person Pat is, I’d just say, we’re in a really good place right now.
The comments come after Andy Reid played it easy last week when discussing whether the Kansas City Chiefs would have their star quarterback participate in OTAs later this month, noting he was in a “good position” to participate in certain aspects but would not commit. It looks like one of the biggest challenges for the Chiefs brass at this point is making sure they don’t leave the line out too long for Mahomes, ensuring a consistent pace to prevent a dropback.
From the moment Mahomes went down and the Chiefs’ season was lost, the question was whether the quarterback would be ready for Week 1. The next timeline update will be to see what the club allows him to do in OTAs three weeks from now and next month’s minicamp (June 9-11). We’re still a long way from knowing for sure, but it’s sounding more and more like Justin Fields will be competing, not playing, when KC opens the season.