In the second quarter of the Kansas City Chiefs’ 35-12 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday, the home crowd underwent a major injury scare as quarterback Patrick Mahomes took a heavy hit from rookie pass rusher David Bailey and was immediately in obvious pain from his right elbow.
Mahomes fumbled on the play, and the Jets took over. He was instantly seen working with trainers on the sideline and throwing the ball. When the Chiefs got the ball back to close the first half a few plays later, the face
of the league still had his helmet on and retook the field. Mahomes would finish the game until backup Justin Fields came on for Kansas City’s final offensive series with most of the team’s reserves.
Speaking after the game, Mahomes confirmed he still does not know exactly what the diagnosis will ultimately be.
“I haven’t gotten that,” said Mahomes. “We’re going to do some testing whenever I get done with this media stuff, and we’ll get a better understanding of it. I’m sure [head coach Andy] Reid will give you an update tomorrow.”
The quarterback reported feeling good after the game, but he suspects there will be some pain the next day and will immediately begin managing the injury.
“I feel good now,” continued Mahomes. “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, and we’ll get ourselves ready to go. It’s great to get the win now, now it’s about getting ourselves ready for next week.”
At the time of the injury, neither Reid nor Mahomes immediately knew that he would return. Reid’s attention went exclusively to getting Fields ready to enter the game if needed.
“You’ve got to get Justin ready quickly,” the coach explained. “That’s kind of where you’re at on the field. You let your medical people take care of that. Then you put everything back there and get the other guy going. 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 we were getting ready to start that series.”
Mahomes also had lingering memories of a home game last December when he suffered a torn ACL.
“You just never know,” he remarked. “Obviously, I had the knee injury last year. You never know what’s going to be the final result or outcome of an injury. At the same time, you just try to let the doctors and trainers do their work. It’s something that scares you more than anything, but we were able to get out there and give it a go.”
Although he reiterated there is still a process to come, Mahomes’ confidence increased when he realized he could still through, hopefully ruling out major elbow ligament damage.
“Once I could through the football,” he recalled, “from the stories you hear whenever you can grab the ball and try to throw it, you can’t throw. Once I throw the football I knew hopefully it wasn’t ligament type stuff. It was more muscle type stuff. That will be important to get worked out this week.”
The injury clearly impacted Mahomes on the Chiefs’ next few offensive series. However, the superstar saw marked improvement as the game went on.
“I felt like out of the half, I wasn’t throwing the ball the way I wanted to,” Mahomes observed. “As the game went on — and we continued to work through it and it kind of got warmed back up — I thought I started throwing the ball better towards the end of the second half. That will be important this week is kind of getting the swelling and the fluid out of it so I can be ready to go from the first snap next week.”
A major injury from 2025 ending his season may have made observers forget the toughness Mahomes has shown throughout his career. Sunday should serve as a strong reminder.
“If I’m able to play, I’m going to play,” Mahomes declared. “That’s part of the game. That’s part of playing. It scares you in moments when you get some pain in certain areas of your body. It obviously didn’t feel great, but I was able to 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.”
Reid expects Mahomes to continue being the strong example to the rest of the team as he has through prior injuries.
“When you have a quarterback that is tough, it affects everybody,” the coach stressed. “That’s that position. They’re supposed to take everybody’s game and help raise it. Part of that is that 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 — that you’re able to get back up and go. Nobody does it better than he does it.”
The Chiefs did report two other injuries during Sunday’s game. Tackle Jaylon Moore left the game with an ankle injury and was ruled doubtful to return. Wide receiver Xavier Worthy was immediately ruled out in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury.
“As far as the injuries go,” Reid stated, “Xavier tweaked his hamstring. I don’t know exactly how bad that is right now. Then, Jaylon Moore hurt his ankle. We’ll see how he works out here in the next day or so.”
The Chiefs’ receiving corps has already suffered heavy injury throughout the year. Mahomes expects the backups to step up in Worthy’s expected absence.
“[Worthy] was having a good day today,” lamented Mahoems. “He made some tough, physical catches especially down there at the goal line. Hopefully, it’s not as bad as it looked out there. I haven’t gotten to talk to him or the trainers or anything like that. It’s kind of that next man up mentality. We’ve had guys that have gotten reps because of the injuries. They’ll have to step in and make the plays happen whenever their number is called.”
Some positive injury news could be coming for Kansas City. CBS sideline voice Tracy Wolfson reported before the game that the Chiefs were confident that cornerback Mansoor Delane and defensive tackle Peter Woods — their pair of first-round rookies — would return in Week 10. Delane has missed the last two games with a shoulder injury. Woods left Kansas City’s Week 8 game against the Denver Broncos with a neck injury and did not play Sunday.
