Mahomes Connected With New Tight End During Rehab

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is famous for his connection to a certain famous Chiefs tight end, but Mahomes formed a new connection with tight end Zach Ertz as he rehabbed from offseason knee surgery. 

The connection was coincidental, but it was important to both players, according to Jesse Newell of The Athletic. Ertz had the same injury with the Washington Commanders right before Mahomes went down, and he immeditaely texted Mahomes, whom he knew from offseason workouts. 

“It’s a lonely road ahead,” Ertz wrote to Mahomes, “but I’m here for you.”

The two players supported one another through their parallel rehab paths, as they checked in periodically with encouragement to go with their respective progress reports. 

“It was good to have someone to just be like, ‘OK, where I’m at is right where I need to be.’ And we’re being aggressive, but we’re being smart,” Ertz said. “So it was good to have someone that was constantly going through the same struggles that I was.”

They trained in different locations, but the process was basically the same. Ertz described the first month as “literally laying on a table and just cranking at your knee, trying to get the range of motion back.”

Team allegiances took a back seat during the process, which isn’t uncommon these days, and Ertz indicated that most of it was checking in on the grind, the exact rehab they were doing and how they were feeling about whatever was happening in the moment. 

“It’s really just supporting one another,” Ertz said. “Truly happy for the other person’s progress because when you’re rehabbing, no one’s really there.”

Mahomes was appreciative as well, and he added that having Ertz on the other end of his process helped him get his competitive juices going. 

“You feel like sometimes you’re lonely, because you’re doing stuff by yourself and you’re just competing against yourself,” Mahomes said. “So it gave me someone else I can compete with to push my competitive drive.”

Another tough part of the rehab is not being able to see instant results, according to Ertz. It’s easy to get stuck doing one specific exercise on a body part for a week, which means days without getting and direct physical feedback. 

“It’s tough not seeing those immediate results,” Ertz said. “And I think that is probably the toughest part, mentally just grinding through those difficult days where it’s not getting tangibly better objectively.

“I think he just encouraged me how aggressive he was. It’s not surprising why he’s so great. He attacks everything.”