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when will patrick mahomes be back

Patrick Mahomes is expected to miss the rest of the 2025 season and is targeting a return sometime early in the 2026 NFL regular season, assuming his rehab stays on track.

What happened to Mahomes?

  • Mahomes tore the ACL (and, in some reports, the ACL and LCL) in his left knee late in a Week 15 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2025 season.
  • The injury was confirmed by MRI, and he underwent surgery shortly after, ending his 2025 campaign and the Chiefs’ playoff hopes that year.

Expected return timeline

  • Typical recovery for a torn ACL in a quarterback is roughly 9–12 months, depending on the presence of additional ligament damage and how rehab progresses.
  • Several reports indicate that if Mahomes’ rehab goes smoothly, he is expected to be ready around the start of the 2026 regular season, with some speculation placing a realistic on‑field return somewhere between Week 1 and Week 3 of that season.

What coaches and Mahomes are saying

  • Head coach Andy Reid has said Mahomes is “attacking” his rehab and that the team is optimistic about him being ready for the 2026 season, but they are not putting a hard public deadline on his exact return game to avoid pressure or setbacks.
  • Mahomes himself posted that he will “be back stronger than ever,” underscoring that his focus is on daily work and long‑term recovery rather than rushing back for late 2025 games.

Realistic fan expectation

  • Barring setbacks, the safest assumption is that Mahomes will not play again until the 2026 regular season and that the Chiefs will ease him back, possibly limiting some movement-based plays early in the year while he fully trusts the knee again.
  • Until there is an official medical clearance and depth-chart announcement closer to the 2026 preseason, all specific “exact week” predictions remain informed speculation, but all current signals point to an early‑2026 return window rather than anything in late 2025.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.