Quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs has vowed to be back for Week 1, and he's back on the field.
When it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs, we've been getting a steady stream of updates about quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He's moving. He's throwing. He's working out and doing his rehab thing rather relentlessly, and he's going to be back on the field for Week 1 if he has anything to say about it.
All of these updates could be put on a tape loop given that they're basically the same. But the latest, which comes from Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk, is a bit more meaningful. Mahomes has been participating in seven-on-seven drills during voluntary workouts, and according to reports, including one from Jesse Newell of the Athletic, he looked sharp.
That's the good news, although there's not a lot to it because we still don't have much to go on here. The Chiefs are being very careful about that because NFL teams tend to treat this sort of thing as if information about it was the equivalent of military secrets.
The bad news, if you want to call it that, is the part about Mahomes still not participating in full team drills that are 11-on-11. It would be shocking to see Mahomes going flat out in that sort of work at this point in his rehab, so this news also doesn't mean much.
To get a point of reference, though, consider the Chiefs' main rivals, the Denver Broncos. They also have a quarterback who is rehabilitating from a serious injury—wags have dubbed the opener between the two teams as the “Rehab Bowl”—and Bo Nix is nowhere mobile enough to get on the field right now.
The Broncos created a mess when Coach Sean Payton revealed some of Nix’s medicals in detail, and I've been trying to walk that back and “clarify” it unsuccessfully ever since. Their situation feels far more tenuous, at least until we get some kind of similar video or report about Nix's progress.
There's a lot for both teams to do, especially the Chiefs. The Broncos are coming off a 14-3 season that left them within a field goal of the Super Bowl, while the Chiefs are coming off a 6-11 season in which they collapsed after Mahomes went down with his knee injury.
The Chiefs are rebuilding their offense, so in that context Mahomes’ ability to participate in seven-on-seven drills is important. They got quarterback Justin Fields to fill in and help run the new offense, and so far that seems to be working.
There's a lot that isn't, however. Their wide receiver room is currently in a state of near-chaos with Rashee Rice in prison and coming off knee surgery. We still don't know what's going to happen when he emerges and the Chiefs assess his condition, but right now it seems safe to conclude that Mahomes will make his Week 1 projection and be taking snaps against the Broncos.
