Patrick Mahomes is already back… sort of.
The Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback suffered a season-ending ACL and LCL injury back in Week 15 of the 2025 NFL season.
Since then, the two-time league MVP has made it his mission to rehabilitate his lower leg in time to return to the field for Week 1 of the 2026 campaign, with Chiefs’ first game on September 15.
So far, so good for Mahomes, who has been fully cleared to participate without restrictions at Chiefs training camp, which officially gets underway on Tuesday.
But the 30-year-old has already reported to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, with the Chiefs social media team filming his entrance to the facility.
Mahomes, however, was not impressed from the angle with which he was filmed at, and poked fun at the admin.
“Bad angle… [crying laughter emoji],” he commented on the Chiefs’ social media post.
Of course, this is a reference to previous years in which fans have joked that he has a ‘dad bod.’
In his return to the field, the face of the Chiefs’ franchise was seen throwing footballs to some of his teammates, with KSHB 41 reporting that he looked more than comfortable participating in football activities.
“Mahomes continued to participate in all individual and 7-on-7 drills without any issues,” KSHB 41’s Nick Jacobs wrote. “He started off with a good back pylon throw to wide receiver Jimmy Holiday for a touchdown in 7-on-7.
“Mahomes later followed that up with a spot on no-look pass in timing, placement and velocity to wide receiver Andrew Armstrong. He placed it in the end zone on a slant route in between two zone coverages. The pass was unfortunately dropped.”
But it wasn’t all plain-sailing for the three-time Super Bowl champion.
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“Rookie safety Xavier Nwankpa got the best of Mahomes on Saturday when he almost picked off one of his passes,” Jacobs added. “He kept an eye on Mahomes while in his zone coverage. Nwankpa stayed discipline and timed his jump when Mahomes thought the route was open.
“He also had a couple of additional deflections and an interception on quarterback Justin Fields on an option route.”
Mahomes building confidence in his knee every day
Despite having suffered such a gruesome injury by trying to extend a play against the Jacksonville Jaguars to keep the Chiefs’ postseason hopes alive, Mahomes was adamant to reporters that he won’t be looking to change his approach to playing going forward.
For now, at least, he has made the decision to wear a leg brace as he continues to ramp up his preparations to get his body right to take to the field.
“There really isn’t a plan for it [wearing a brace]. I’m going to start off with it just because I’ve worn it before and I feel comfortable with it,” Mahomes said.
“So that’s kind of where we will start, but it’s not like I’ve been told I have to wear it or how long I have to wear it. It’s just going to be my comfortability, how I feel.
“I will start with it on just because I feel like I can move and be myself with it. I played with it in college, and then we’ll just see where we go from there.”
“I plan to be able to do everything I did before. I’ve been moving around and doing that stuff. I’m going to obviously try and take care of myself a little better than I did last season,” he added.
“I think I ran too much last season in general; I’ll try to be better with that. All else fails, I’ll give it to K9 [Kenneth Walker] and let him just go out there and work.”
Chiefs’ first game sees them take on the Denver Broncos on September 15.
