Patrick Mahomes Says Surgically Repaired Knee “Feels Great” as Chiefs Camp Turns Physical
Patrick Mahomes is running out of reasons to think about his knee. Eight months after a torn ACL and LCL ended his 2025 season, the Chiefs quarterback says the joint has faded into the background of practice — which is exactly where he wants it.
“I forget about it sometimes,” Mahomes told reporters Saturday, according to Arrowhead Pride. “I try to be smart, but you get through camp, and you’re trying to compete. Practices are long, and you want to win the rep. So there are times when I do forget about it and just play football.”
That’s the update Kansas City needed to hear. The 30-year-old is working his way back from a devastating injury suffered Dec. 14 against the Chargers, when a low hit from defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand buckled his left knee and tore both his ACL and LCL. He had surgery in Dallas the very next day. Nine months later, he’s a full participant in camp, and the countdown to Kansas City’s Sept. 14 opener against the Broncos is no longer a question mark — it’s a deadline he’s chasing.
Andy Reid isn’t ready to commit to Mahomes playing in the preseason. The coach has floated the idea that his quarterback could sit out all three exhibition games, something Mahomes has never done in nine NFL seasons. Mahomes says he’s fine with whatever Reid decides. “I’m for whatever Coach says,” he said. “I’m going to prepare to play. He hasn’t told me anything. I’ll prepare to get myself ready.”
The “Playoff Approach” Behind the Recovery
The speed of this comeback didn’t happen by accident. Mahomes spent the offseason treating rehab like a playoff run rather than a vacation. According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the three-time Super Bowl champion stayed in Kansas City for nearly the entire offseason instead of traveling, working off a schedule built around a game that didn’t exist yet.
Reid didn’t hold back when describing the commitment. “It was about him wanting to be back, ready to play,” Reid told Breer. “There was a sacrifice there of staying here and knocking it out, working with Julie every day and spending seven hours at it — and not always fun, right? But he didn’t care. I mean, he was going to do it.”
Reid framed it as a lesson for the rest of the league. “It’s a great lesson, probably for all the players in the league: When you go into a rehab, go in and attack it,” he said. “You attack these rehabs and good things can happen.”
The “Julie” in question is Julie Frymyer, the Chiefs’ assistant athletic trainer who also guided Mahomes through the high-ankle sprain that nearly derailed his 2022 playoff run. That history matters. Reid pointed to the trust already built between player and trainer as a difference-maker this time around. “She’s special,” Reid said.
The work shows. Mahomes hasn’t missed a first-team rep through camp, according to Breer, who watched him move around Missouri Western State University with a brace tucked under compression sleeves — barely noticeable unless you knew to look for it.
Camp Gets Chippy
All that competitive energy hasn’t stayed contained to individual drills. Saturday’s practice, the sixth straight without a day off, boiled over. Defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah and left guard Kingsley Suamataia got tangled up after an 11-on-11 rep, with Suamataia throwing a punch before teammates separated them, ESPN’s Nate Taylor reported. Later, during Reid’s long-drive drill, running back Kenneth Walker III and safety Alohi Gilman got into it near the sideline after Walker felt Gilman hit him harder than necessary on a run play. It took several teammates to pull them apart.
Special teams coordinator Dave Toub pointed to the grind of the schedule as a factor. “It’s kind of unusual, and we haven’t done that in the past,” Toub said of the six-day stretch. “It was a little bit of a grinder. It was chippy. That’s how you know. It’s hot and that’s football sometimes.”
Mahomes wasn’t worried about any of it. He was among the players who stepped in to help break things up, and afterward he shrugged off the dust-ups as a byproduct of a long camp against the same faces. “Going against the same guys and just being competitive, I think that’s what’s been great about this camp,” Mahomes said. “It’s super competitive on both sides, so little scuffles here and there but nothing crazy.”
For a team that missed the playoffs for the first time in Mahomes’ career last season, an edge showing up in August practices isn’t a red flag. It’s the kind of thing Kansas City will take.
