Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he's ready to start in the Chiefs opener in September.
The ongoing running commentary between Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes about the QB’s starting status continued unabated today, with the coach once again saying he’s not willing to officially name Mahomes the starter and Mahomes declaring that he’s on track and ready to roll.
Call it a rerun if you will, because that’s exactly what it is, with the latest comments from Mahomes coming from Nate Taylor of ESPN.
"Being able to go out there, day after day, and have the grind of a camp, that can even be harder than the [regular] season," Mahomes said Tuesday. "It's been awesome for me to be able to do that. It's exciting. I didn't know if I was going to have to take days off, but my body has responded the right way.
"Honestly, the more we practice, the better I feel."
Mahomes has also ratcheted up the intensity of his play in practice, athough this isn’t always his intention. It happens when his competitive nature kicks in, which is to say all the time with the Chiefs quarterback.
"I try to not make those hard cuts, but at the end of the day I'm a competitor," Mahomes said. "It just kind of takes over sometimes. You want to still prove it to yourself that you can do it. I've been able to do that in certain spots of making quick, reactionary cuts, which I think is the biggest thing. I've felt great doing it.
"The coaches kind of come up to me, like, 'Hey, let's calm down a little bit.' Just being a competitor, I want to go out there and win and give everything I have for the team."
Reid, meanwhile, said the Chiefs medical staff hasn’t cleared Mahomes for game action yet, but that seems to be a mere formality at this point. He’s been doing a good job of driving his coaches crazy, though, as offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy noted.
"With him not playing in the preseason, it could drive you crazy," offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said of Mahomes. "He's like a coach on the sideline. But it's a good thing because you know he's itching to get back out there and do whatever he can do to help us win."
You get the feeling Mahomes knows his timeline down to the last second, as he noted when he reviewed the goal he set back in December after having surgery.
"It's nine months," Mahomes said of what his recovery will be by Week 1. "It's the amount of time [doctors] said from the beginning, that if I did everything the right way, I would be ready to play Week 1. I'm someone that, if you put [a goal] out in front of me, I want to go out and get it and maximize every single opportunity, every rep in the weight room, every hour that I can spend in the building to get my body right.
"This has always been the plan. From the day I got the surgery, as quick as I did, to hopefully the first game of the year, the plan will go accordingly, and I'll be able to go out there and be myself."
