Latest available updates on Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes' ankle injury
The Kansas City Chiefs are still waiting on the final word on star quarterback Patrick Mahomes about his outlook for the upcoming sprint of games. He suffered an ankle injury in Week 15's win over the Cleveland Browns, exiting the game in the fourth quarter after a failed fourth down attempt. Andy Reid confirmed that Mahomes […]
The Kansas City Chiefs are still waiting on the final word on star quarterback Patrick Mahomes about his outlook for the upcoming sprint of games. He suffered an ankle injury in Week 15's win over the Cleveland Browns, exiting the game in the fourth quarter after a failed fourth down attempt.
Andy Reid confirmed that Mahomes suffered an ankle injury after the game, adding that nothing was broken and that he could have come back into the game under different circumstances. Various NFL insiders reported that Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain and was considered "week to week." Mahomes himself spoke about the injury after the game, intimating a wait-and-see mentality regarding its significance and impact.
The latest news as of Monday morning comes from one of the top NFL insiders. Appearing on NFL Network, Ian Rapoport had the following to say about Mahomes injury.
"Patrick Mahomes is believed to have suffered a high ankle spring in yesterday's game," Rapoport said. "Obviously, exits the game. Carson Wentz finished out a relatively easy win for the Kansas City Chiefs. You watch that hit high low, the amount of pain he's in, him limping off. None of it is good. That said, it does not appear, based on the initial diagnosis, that this is a dire situation. Yes, I said the words high ankle sprain, that is the fear. Patrick Mahomes could have more tests today. X-rays were negative. He is considered week to week. This is the same Mahomes that had a somewhat similar high ankle sprain around the playoffs a couple of years back and ended up playing. His body is just built differently. I know people say it, but it actually is. So, we will see what his status is. He has a Saturday game, then a Christmas game does complicate things."
The prior playoffs that Rapoport references were the 2022-2023 playoffs when Mahomes suffered an ankle injury during the divisional round playoff game with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He missed a single quarter of play before returning to finish the game. He also didn't miss any games during the rest of the playoff en route to a Super Bowl LVII victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
This scenario is certainly different because Mahomes has to play the next two games in such a short span of time. They play the Houston Texans on Saturday, Dec. 21, and another game on Christmas Day on Wednesday, Dec. 25, against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That likely played into Andy Reid's decision to pull Mahomes from the Week 15 game on Sunday. During the 2022-23 playoffs, Mahomes had eight days before the conference championship game against the Cincinnati Bengals and then two weeks until the Super Bowl.
Rapoport came back with the following update around noon, confirming that Mahomes was diagnosed with a "mild" high ankle sprain following further testing. He added that the Chiefs will see what transpires during the practice week, but expressed that Mahomes' status for Week 16 against the Texans is in doubt.
We'll hear from Andy Reid with the latest updates on Tuesday, but I have little doubt that Mahomes will want to tough out the injury and play in Week 16 against the Texans. However, with much less time to heal with these upcoming games, the Chiefs might have to make the decision for Mahomes to prevent him from further injuring himself.
Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie’s first career interception came with help from the unlikeliest of places
Kansas City Chiefs CB Trent McDuffie got an assist from the unlikeliest of places on his first career interception.
