Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been cleared to practice, but he'll be wearing a brace.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is back in the news again, saying in his latest update that he feels “amazing” after being cleared to fully participate in training camp practices. But Mahomes’ short-term football future includes wearing a knee brace, according to a report from Michael David Smith from Pro Football Talk.
The news certainly isn’t surprising, but it isn’t quite the blast from the past that Chiefs fans were looking for. Mahomes wore a brace at Texas Tech when he suffered a knee injury against TCU back in 2015, according to Smith, but it’s been a while, and even the quarterback isn’t sure how this is going to go.
“There isn’t really a plan for it,” Mahomes said. “I’m going start off with it just because I’ve worn it before and I feel comfortable with it. So that 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.”
It’s hard to imagine Mahomes not being less mobile to at least some extent, but he’s insisting he can adapt.
“I will start with it on just because I feel like I can still move and be myself with it,” he explained. “I played with it in college and then we’ll just see where we go from there.”
It is possible Mahomes could choose to take it off, according to Smith, but that would almost certainly come with a new set of risks. The Chiefs learned the hard way about life without Mahomes last year, and another 6-11 season definitely isn’t part of the plan.
There’s going to be a lot to parse once Mahomes does take to the field next week. There’s the question of how much he’ll be able to do, and the possibility of Mahomes playing in preseason games has also been raised to give him the chance to shake some of the rust off.
There are also legitimate questions about backup quarterback Justin Fields and what the Chiefs offense will look like with him taking snaps. The passing reports on Fields weren’t good in minicamp, so his performance will be part of the quarterback equation.
This is new territory for Kansas City as the Chiefs try to get back in the playoff mix, and it will be fascinating to see what it looks like in August.
