Patrick Mahomes on Ankle Injury Recovery, Outlook for Week 16 vs. Texans

Following their Week 15 win over the Cleveland Browns, the Kansas City Chiefs got back to work on Tuesday ahead of yet another AFC matchup. As Saturday's game against the Houston Texans approaches, the storyline of the week for the reigning Super Bowl champions is the health and availability of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes left Sunday's game in the fourth quarter, later getting ruled questionable to return with an ankle injury but ultimately remaining sidelined for the rest of the contest. Early reports alluded to a potential week-to-week status for the two-time MVP with what's deemed a "mild" high-ankle sprain.

Right after the game, Mahomes explained what went wrong.

"I was trying to run up in the pocket," Mahomes said. "Obviously, fourth down, trying to make a play happen and as I threw the ball, I kind of got hit. I haven't seen it, but it just felt like someone hit me from behind as well, so I kind of just got rolled up on. This stuff kind of happens in football. I tried to bounce back up but obviously, it hurt a little bit. Now, we'll just get after the rehab part of it and try to be ready for next week."

Now that he's had some time to attack early rehab, where does Mahomes stand? Speaking to the media on Tuesday, he provided an update on his ankle.

"Yeah, I mean, I think it's done good with the treatment and the work we've gotten in," Mahomes said. "Obviously, it's a short amount of time, but I thought we had a good day yesterday and we had good work after the game as well."

Mahomes also acknowledged that he'll push to start on Saturday and will practice in some capacity on Tuesday. Head coach Andy Reid plans to give him that chance.

"Yeah, I think that you have to," Mahomes said. "That's the reason you play this game, is to push to play. I'll get to work in practice and try to push it to see where I can get to but at the end of the day, I'm not going to put our team in a bad position. If I feel like I can play and go out there and win a football game, I'll play and if I don't feel like that's the best-case scenario, I'll let guys like Carson (Wentz) play. He's a guy that's won in this league as well. It's just about pushing it this week, seeing where I'm at and making the best decision then."

Despite nursing a bad injury, perhaps a fortunate piece of context for Mahomes is that he's dealt with ankle injuries before. Most notably, his high-ankle sprain suffered in the 2022-23 Divisional Round of the playoffs against the Jacksonville Jaguars was significant enough to bother him all the way through to the Super Bowl. Comparing that injury to this one, Mahomes said his current ailment has responded "better" and "quicker" to treatment. He says he wants to "be in a better spot" for future games, though.

Speaking of which, does a Week 17 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Christmas Day or Kansas City's regular-season finale against the Denver Broncos factor into Mahomes's thought process? Not too much – the Chiefs star wants to focus on maximizing his opportunities this week as the team pursues the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC.

"Not necessarily," Mahomes said. "If I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go. I don't think that game after is really going to affect it. If I'm not ready to go, I'll have to wait and try to make it back for that one as well. Regardless of when we play that next game, these are important games we're trying to win to get that bye and to get to that second round of the playoffs. We play three great football teams coming up, and I want to be as healthy as I can be and ready to play."

Read More: Chiefs Waive Former First-Round Running Back Clyde Edwards-Helaire