Chiefs Relieved but Not Out of the Woods After Patrick Mahomes' Injury Against Jets

The Kansas City Chiefs made things look easy down the stretch of their Week 9 win over the New York Jets, but there were some tense minutes near the end of the first half. For a brief moment, every last bit of excitement was sapped from Arrowhead Stadium when quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered an injury.

Late in the second quarter of Sunday's game, the superstar signal-caller took a hard hit from Jets defensive end David Bailey as he wound up his throwing motion. The result was a sack-fumble on second-and-10, recovered by fellow edge rusher Will McDonald in Kansas City territory.

Mahomes briefly remained on the ground before grabbing at his right arm and being helped to the sideline. He ultimately returned for the ensuing Chiefs possession, but to say many folks' breath was held may not be an understatement.

Here is the video of Mahomes’ injury. pic.twitter.com/GePW0WYZET
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 8, 2026

Speaking to the media after the game, head coach Andy Reid described it as an injury to Mahomes' "elbow region." Mahomes himself said more testing is coming to determine the exact specifics of the ailment, including the precise location on the arm, but he wasn't going to stay on the sideline if he didn't have to despite the frightening sequence.

"If I'm able to play, I'm going to play," Mahomes said. "That's part of the game, that's part of playing. It scares you in moments where you get some pains in certain areas of your body. Obviously, it didn't feel great, but I was able to kind of get it worked on a little bit, especially at halftime, and then was able to go out there and play the rest of the game."

Mahomes played most of the second half before giving way to backup Justin Fields to effectively kneel the 35-12 game out in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. He revealed that he didn't feel he was throwing "the way" he wanted to coming out of the break, although that improved with reps. His focus is now squarely on getting good results from looming tests and preparing for Week 10.

"I feel good now," Mahomes said. "I mean, obviously, you get the win and the adrenaline's pumping. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, but we'll get right to it. We'll get to work on it, we'll get ourselves ready to go. It was great to get the win. Now, it's about getting ourselves ready for next week."

7:40 p.m. CT UPDATE: Per a Sunday evening report from Ian Rapoport of ESPN and NFL Network, Mahomes' MRI didn't reveal a major injury. It's described as an "elbow strain/sprain."

#Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes underwent an MRI following today’s win and sources say the tests did not reveal a major injury.

Mahomes’ elbow strain/sprain will be monitored over the next few days for pain and swelling. But so far, so good. Mahomes did go back in the game. pic.twitter.com/uWPbBY3Gaa
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 9, 2026

Andy Reid praises Mahomes' display of toughness vs. Jets on Sunday

In the aftermath of what was otherwise a low-stress game, Reid opened up about what was going through his mind when he saw his best player go down with what looked like an alarming injury.

"Get Justin ready," Reid said. "Quickly. That's kind of where you're at on the field. You let your medical people take care of that, and then you've got to kind of put everything back there and get the other guy going. But he's a tough kid. If there's any way he can come back from something, he's coming back. I didn't know until they were getting ready to start that series."

Over the years, Mahomes has fought through numerous injuries to stay on the field. In other instances, he's recovered quicker than expected to get back in the lineup. The biggest hurdle of his career to date, however, was an ACL tear suffered less than a year ago on the same field he got hurt on in Week 9. He admitted that it's always scary when something like an elbow or knee is banged up, but he's glad he seems to have avoided anything major.

Being able to fight through the pain and discomfort had a ripple effect on the rest of the team. In one of the most brutal sports known to man, Reid is grateful to have a quarterback like Mahomes on his side.

"When you have a quarterback that's tough, it affects everybody," Reid said. "That's that position, you're supposed to take everybody's game and help raise it. Part of that is sometimes, when you're banged up a little bit — you're in a vulnerable position back there, so you're going to get banged up a little bit — but if you get banged up, you're able to get back up and go. Nobody does it better than he does it."

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