KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Positioned next to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, at the start of what would be a nine-month odyssey, was the MRI machine. The results of the scans that Dec. 14 day revealed the most significant injury of Mahomes' nine-year career: a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee.
As the minutes passed, more people entered the room inside the Chiefs' training facility, located a few hundred feet away from Arrowhead Stadium -- team head trainer Rick Burkholder, Mahomes' agent Chris Cabott, his wife Brittany, coach Andy Reid, general manager Brett Veach and club owner Clark Hunt. Together -- less than an hour after Mahomes had crumbled to the turf, grabbed his knee and screamed in pain -- the group began contemplating next steps.
At one point, someone looked at the calendar. The first Sunday of the 2026 NFL season was scheduled for Sept. 13, 273 days away. While exploring surgical options, a phone call was made to Dr. Dan Cooper, the renowned Dallas Cowboys head team physician who specializes in knee and shoulder injuries. Cooper presented a proposition to Mahomes: If he wanted to return to the field as soon as possible, giving himself a chance to be back in uniform for the start of the Chiefs' 2026 campaign, he would need to fly from Kansas City to Dallas the next morning to have surgery.
"I'm willing," Mahomes responded, "to do whatever it takes."
Throughout his rehab and recovery, Mahomes has said that same sentence many different times. And his exhaustive, day-after-day actions have led to him achieving his mission -- one that began next to the MRI machine 274 days ago.
When the Chiefs open their season Monday against the Denver Broncos (8:15 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN), Mahomes, 30, will be available and is expected to be the starting quarterback.
"It's incredible," Veach said. "That's a guy that defines what leadership and what the face of a franchise should look like. He gave up an entire summer. He just attacked [the rehab]. Everybody in the building sees it. The level of sacrifice is something that has been an example throughout the entire organization."
Mahomes' injury punctuated the Chiefs' disappointing 2025 season. Following the two-minute warning in their Week 15 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Mahomes tried to rally the Chiefs to a game-winning drive. He scrambled out of the pocket, rolling to his right. With defensive end Da'Shawn Hand chasing him from behind, Mahomes threw the ball away. But a few steps later, Mahomes planted his left foot, which stuck into the turf, and hyperextended his knee, the knee bowing to the outside of his leg, which damaged his LCL.
The Chiefs' 16-13 loss to the Chargers eliminated them from the playoffs, the team's first time missing the postseason since 2014.
"I wasn't playing my best at the end of last year before I got hurt," said Mahomes, who rushed for a career-high 422 yards and five touchdowns last season. "I think I ran a little bit too much."
One reason Mahomes and the Chiefs selected Cooper is his experience repairing two of the four main stabilizing knee ligaments 24 hours after injury, including reattaching the LCL.
Aaron Borgmann, the founder of Borgmann Rehab Solutions and a former physical therapist and athletic trainer with the Chiefs, said most players wait a week or sometimes longer before having the surgery because of how much their knee has swelled. By having an expedited procedure, Mahomes avoided that wait. Also in his favor: He did not have any artery, nerve, joint surface or meniscal damage, according to Burkholder.
"For [most people], it's 10 days for an MRI, it's another doctor's visit and then another week to schedule surgery and so on," said Borgmann, describing general practices involving a torn ACL. "But we're not professional football players. I stand on this: NFL players of today have the best medical care in the world due to our healthcare system and our availability of imaging.
"We have more doctors associated with NFL teams than any other professional sport in the United States. It is the best medical care you can find in the world."
Even before his surgery, Mahomes wrote on his social media accounts, vowing to not fail his expectations.
"I [will] be back stronger than ever."
AWAITING MAHOMES ON Day 1 of 274 was Julie Frymyer, one of the Chiefs' top assistant athletic trainers. In his first rehab session, less than 24 hours after the surgery, Mahomes gritted his teeth and grimaced in pain while Frymyer assessed his muscles and worked to make sure the knee didn't swell up.
Mahomes and Frymyer had been through such a scene many times before for three different injuries over the quarterback's career.
Since Mahomes became the Chiefs' starter in 2018, Frymyer has been one the team's most sought-out trainers. Mahomes on numerous occasions has credited much of his success in recovering from injuries faster than the average player to Frymyer -- and not to the fan theory that he possesses healing powers similar to Marvel character Wolverine. Also helping him, according to Frymyer and various others in the Chiefs organization, is Mahomes' remarkable ability to tolerate pain, whether during a game or in the team's training room.
Frymyer's first major assignment with Mahomes occurred on Oct. 17, 2019, when Mahomes dislocated his right kneecap while attempting a quarterback sneak.
"I remember going into that halftime and he's trying to talk me into [him] going back out and playing," Reid said of Mahomes. "That [mindset] is huge for that position. You've got a lot of eyes on you. Guys are going to watch how you go about your business."
With Frymyer's help, Mahomes surprised the Chiefs by missing just two games, returning to the field 24 days later. Prior to his knee injury, it was the longest absence of his career. A few months later, Mahomes led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years. The following year, during the postseason, Mahomes returned seven days after sustaining a painful turf toe in his left foot -- while also having a concussion from the previous week. Back on the field, he excelled, leading the Chiefs to Super Bowl LV, where they were beaten by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Frymyer became well-known among Chiefs fans and trainers in the NFL after the 2022 postseason, when she administered almost around-the-clock treatment and therapy for eight consecutive days after Mahomes experienced a painful high right ankle sprain in a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round. Despite his limited mobility, Mahomes once again carried the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles for the franchise's third championship.
"I trust her so much," Mahomes said of Frymyer, who last year starred in a State Farm commercial alongside the quarterback and pop singer Meghan Trainor. "There's days you come in [and] you're tired. I mean, you're sore. But she makes sure I finish the entire workout -- and I'm going to do it the right way. She knows when to pull back on some days.
"It lets me go out there and work and not have to think about if I'm doing too much [or] am I doing not enough."
Unlike those previous, brief rehabs, Frymyer this time had to find the correct balance of when to motivate and when to encourage Mahomes through a monthslong process.
The most grueling days were in late December, when he couldn't walk. While wearing a protective brace, Mahomes couldn't sleep with much comfort. Christmas Day was not ideal, either. Instead of playing with his teammates, Mahomes watched the Chiefs lose to the Broncos from a suite inside Arrowhead Stadium, his crutches nearby.
"The toughest part was the beginning, not being able to get up and chase my kids around," Mahomes said. "I remember sitting at the [training] table and watching us play those last few [road] games and how much it hurt me."
Beginning in January, Mahomes spent at least seven hours in the Chiefs' training facility most days, many of those hours alongside Frymyer. Frymyer had checkpoints for Mahomes to reach every two weeks for both of them to gauge improvement in his knee's strength and flexibility. Each report was then sent to Cooper for him to evaluate.
Since a player's progress is often not linear, Borgmann acknowledged that one of the most demanding challenges is for the player to not get overwhelmed, emotionally or psychologically, by how tedious and meticulous each task in rehab can be when the journey still has several months remaining. For continuity and diligence purposes, Mahomes had Frymyer travel with him throughout the offseason, a decision that Borgmann praised.
"If I told you that your 401(k) and your stock portfolio could go up 1% every day, you would run to the bank with that, right?" said Borgmann, who co-hosts the "Sports Med Bros" podcast. "If you've got 365% improvement by the end of the year, you'd sign up for that every day. The problem is it takes you showing up [for your rehab] to get 1% better every day.
"It's not sexy, and a lot of it is pretty mundane and repetitive. But that's the thing that makes people drive the process [forward] in rehab, not the Instagram-worthy stuff that you do three times a week."
One of the most significant days for Mahomes was March 25, which happened to be the 100th day after his surgery.
Inside a training complex in Dallas, Mahomes and Frymyer began the day with their usual four-hour rehab session. The third person with them was Bobby Stroupe, Mahomes' longtime trainer. A group of baseball players was also training at the same complex, which led to a spontaneous moment during a break from Mahomes' rehab work: Stroupe picked up a baseball and two gloves, tossing one to Mahomes.
The men played catch for around 20 minutes, the activity evolving from short throws back and forth into a small version of long toss. When Frymyer was ready for the next task, having Mahomes walk in circles, Stroupe grabbed a football. Standing in the middle of the circle, Stroupe threw the ball to Mahomes. The quarterback, with a smile on his face, responded by tossing no-look passes back to Stroupe. Frymyer and Stroupe knew those moments were uplifting to Mahomes.
A few minutes later, Stroupe, using Mahomes' phone, captured the quarterback taking a five-step dropback at a moderate tempo. Mahomes did his usual footwork and planted his right foot -- allowing him to transfer some of his weight on his left knee -- before he threw what appeared to be an intermediate pass, executing the proper follow-through in the process. The four-second video clip, which Mahomes posted on his Instagram account that day, offered the world the first public glimpse of his recovery.
"Day by Day!" Mahomes wrote in his Instagram story. "Felt [great] being able to throw the ball around today!"
MANY OF MAHOMES' days were divided into two parts. Frymyer had a plan for improving Mahomes' goniometer measurements, which assessed the range of motion of his knee joint. Stroupe's plan was a series of training sessions to make sure the quarterback didn't neglect other parts of his body.
Stroupe, who has been Mahomes' trainer since he was in the fourth grade, wanted to improve the quarterback's upper-body mobility and strength -- a decision they agreed would better stabilize the quarterback's shoulder girdle. The work to further develop Mahomes' core was to ensure that as his knee became stronger, he didn't have his hip flexors get tight, lower back become achy or ankles become stiff.
Stroupe created a six-tiered core progression program for Mahomes. Each stage, which required him to reach certain benchmarks to advance to the next level, was designed for Mahomes to become stronger. The last time Mahomes went through such a program from Stroupe was in the 2021 offseason, after he had surgery to repair the turf toe in his left big toe.
"It's not too much for my body," Mahomes said. "I plan to be able to do everything I did before."
Less than 24 hours after his injury, Mahomes told Stroupe one of his first goals was to be cleared by Cooper to participate in the Chiefs' OTA practices, which began in late May. Mahomes succeeded. During the voluntary practices, Mahomes did his usual 7-on-7 reps and executed all the dropbacks within the Chiefs' offense, whether from the shotgun or under center. The lone part Mahomes was held out of was the 11-on-11 reps, a decision Reid made as a precautionary measure.
Mahomes gained confidence through small victories. Sometimes it was reaching a weight he wanted to lift. Other times it was through his gait becoming smoother or his knee's range of motion increasing and allowing him to run faster. Stroupe also knows Mahomes loves competing, whether it's against himself -- such as comparing videos of his workouts a week apart -- or against others.
Mahomes started a friendly competition with tight end Zach Ertz, a 13-year NFL veteran who spent last season with the Washington Commanders. A week before Mahomes' injury, Ertz, 35, sustained a torn ACL and LCL in his right knee. Through text messages, the players supported each other, exchanging tips, rehab plans and what task they wanted to achieve next.
"It would start off as, 'What are you deadlifting?'" Mahomes said. "Then it's like sending little videos. He's jumping and doing certain acceleration things. I'm sending him [the] next week [me] doing cutting and stuff like that.
"Sometimes you're lonely because you're doing stuff by yourself. It gave me someone else that I can compete with to kind of push my competitive drive."
QB1 out there having the time of his life 🤣 @PatrickMahomes pic.twitter.com/GEFZTUfbRg
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) August 24, 2026
Throughout June and July, after the Chiefs finished their mandatory minicamp, the player who was in the team's training facility the most, Veach said, was Mahomes. At a time when most players were on vacation, Veach was amazed whenever he'd walk by the training room and see Mahomes. Most of those days, Veach said, involved Mahomes, while on a training table, watching whichever World Cup match was being played that afternoon during his rehab session with Frymyer.
In successive weeks, Mahomes traveled to attend tight end Travis Kelce's wedding to pop superstar Taylor Swift (July 3); the wedding of former teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster (July 10); and the World Cup final (July 19) between Spain and Argentina. Throughout the busy social schedule, Mahomes never missed a session with Frymyer or Stroupe, both of whom often traveled with him.
With Stroupe, each of Mahomes' workouts -- focusing on his footwork, rotational movements for his arms and medicine ball swings -- was done to prepare him for July 22, the day Cooper put him through a series of running, jumping and cutting tests. Mahomes wanted to outperform Cooper's expectations by producing test numbers that the doctor had never seen before for someone with the same injury.
"It made me really tired," Mahomes said. He added of Cooper: "He wasn't going to take it easy on me."
When the tests were completed, Mahomes was cleared to participate in all football activities during the Chiefs' training camp.
"I feel stronger than I've ever felt, as far as strength and lifting [weights]," Mahomes said July 24, the day he reported to camp. "I feel amazing. ... I'm excited just to be able to play football. I've been seeing cinderblock walls rehabbing every single day in Kansas City."
MAHOMES NEVER MISSED a practice or a single 11-on-11 rep during camp, which is notoriously intense under Reid. That included a stretch during which the Chiefs had five fully padded practices in a six-day span.
Some of the Chiefs' coaches, including offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and special teams coordinator Dave Toub, closely watched Mahomes to see if he would show any signs of a limp or discomfort. That never happened. Instead, Mahomes' performance and mobility became more noticeable and polished.
On July 30, a week into camp, Mahomes flashed his athleticism in a manner that surprised his teammates: He sprinted to his left on a speed option play and kept the ball to showcase a jump cut to evade a defender before accelerating upfield. Mahomes ended the rep by displaying his joy, jumping in the air three times and smiling before returning to the huddle for the next rep.
"I try to not make those hard cuts, but at the end of the day I'm a competitor," Mahomes said last month. "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."
⏰ @PatrickMahomes pic.twitter.com/ZY5mU5HWst
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) July 30, 2026
Although defenders were prohibited from touching him in practice, Mahomes was not afraid to scramble out of the pocket, either to extend a play before throwing the ball or to see how his speed compared with his teammates. The Chiefs' full playbook was available, too. Mahomes had several reps during which he operated the offense under center -- plays in which he did different types of play-action passes, some involving him rolling left or right out of the pocket.
On Aug. 8, midway through camp, Mahomes acknowledged he had reached another benchmark: He was performing without having to think about his left knee.
"Everybody in the world knows this player is one of the more dynamic people in the world at his position," Borgmann said. "Showing up every day, giving it what you've got for that day, making sure you do something every day, making sure that something is meaningful, it's amazing to see that the process has worked."
Part of Mahomes' motivation this season is to prove to himself, and others, that he is a better quarterback than before his injury.
Mahomes believes he can demonstrate that by navigating the pocket at a higher level and getting the ball out of his hand sooner than he did last season (he attempted 126 passes after 3.5 seconds into the play, tied for the fourth most). Mahomes hopes to connect more often on his deep passes, too, after completing just 20 of 54 attempts on passes 20 yards past the line of scrimmage last season, throwing for one touchdown and two interceptions, according to TruMedia.
The Chiefs are also confident Mahomes will have less of a burden carrying the offense this season since they added running back Kenneth Walker III, the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
For the first time in Mahomes' career, the Chiefs held him out of preseason games as a precautionary measure and to prevent a possible setback in his recovery. But Mahomes, to the surprise of no one in the organization, was still one of the Chiefs' most active players on the sideline. A perfect example occurred in the second preseason game against the Buccaneers. When kicker Harrison Butker made a 69-yard field goal before halftime, Mahomes sprinted onto the field to celebrate with his teammate.
"The thing that I love about him, obviously, is this: He's competitive, he doesn't take anything for granted and he loves the game," Bieniemy said. "With him not playing in the preseason, it could drive you crazy. 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."
Mahomes has impressed his teammates, too. He made highlight pass after highlight pass during camp, often placing the ball precisely between defenders. Even when pressured by pass rushers Chris Jones and George Karlaftis, Mahomes was still able to deliver off-platform or sidearm passes. Those completions were often punctuated by Mahomes trash-talking back to Jones, the Chiefs' longest-tenured defender.
"Nah, he's back. Ain't no 'potentially [back],'" receiver Xavier Worthy said, smiling. "His will and want to is beyond anybody I've ever seen. With Pat, whatever he puts his mind to is what he's going to do."
Now that he has cleared all the checkpoints needed to play against the Broncos on Monday night, Mahomes understands the next objective for him is to experience his first hit from an opposing player, his first sack and his first open-field tackle -- and stand back up each time.
He said he hopes there's a play, perhaps as early as in Monday's game, that gives him the confidence he felt in the 2019 opener after recovering from the dislocated right kneecap. That day, against the Tennessee Titans, Mahomes stepped up in the pocket, used his left foot to jump in the air and threw an intermediate pass to receiver Mecole Hardman Jr., who capped the highlight by scoring a 63-yard touchdown.
"It looks cool, but I actually did it because I was trying to get my knee out of there," Mahomes said. "I showed I could be athletic. I could still make plays that I've always made. You'll never know until you get out there. I trust the process that I've been through."
On Sept. 4, with the heat rising above 90 degrees, Mahomes had one of his most difficult workouts with Stroupe at the quarterback's house. There, the two men reached another checkpoint: their first Friday afternoon session -- the speed workout Mahomes does every Friday during the season. Stroupe had Mahomes complete a series of full-speed sprints, bat swings and medicine ball throws -- movements that are designed, when performed in training, to move the body faster than any similar movement the quarterback would do on the field during a game.
After 264 grueling days of rehab to that point, the results surprised no one: Mahomes' speed was close to the fastest he has ever generated, and his core velocity measurements (for maximal strength, speed and power development while monitoring fatigue within and between sets) were the highest they have ever been.
The numbers were final confirmation of a promise Mahomes made to himself and others back in the spring.
"When I get on the field," Mahomes vowed on May 28, "I'm going to be myself."
