KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes made it through the team's offseason program just months after surgery to repair two ligaments in his left knee, and coach Andy Reid is optimistic that the two-time MVP will be ready for training camp next month.
Mahomes was excused Thursday from the traditional running test that Reid uses to wrap up his mandatory minicamps. But even that conditioning test, Reid said, Mahomes "probably
could've done it and made it, I'm sure, with will.”
“I love what he did this offseason, the way he attacked the rehab,” Reid said. “He's on course to ... get ready for camp.”
Mahomes, who signed a lucrative contract extension on Wednesday, has been spending the offseason in Kansas City, rather than his home in Texas, so that he can continue rehabbing with the Chiefs staff. That includes Julie Frymyer, their head physical therapist, who has helped Mahomes overcome other injuries throughout his NFL career.
“The healing process has to keep taking place,” Reid said. “He gets periodic checks, but he's been working close with Julie on the rehab part of it. Then he comes out and practices — he does rehab before practice, comes to practice, then goes after practice.”
The spare-no-second schedule is designed to get Mahomes ready to start against the Broncos in Week 1 on Sept. 14.
Being ready for training camp at the end of July would be even better.
“You just kind of take it day by day, I think. It looks like he's going to be able to do some things during camp,” Reid said. “He did it out here, so I would presume in 40 days he'll be even better than that. So we'll just see where it goes, and you go through peaks and valleys in this thing — in rehabs — where you might plateau for a little bit, and you don't know when those are going to take place. But so far, it's been a pretty steady climb up the hill there.”
Mahomes signed a restructured contract Wednesday, which adds two years to the deal through the 2033 season and pushes the total compensation to $504.75 million, with incentives and escalators that could send the value to $522.25 million.
Mahomes would be 38 in the final year of the contract, meaning he might well finish his career playing in Kansas City.
“Listen, he's done a great job as a professional, and then off the field as a father and husband, so you got the whole package there,” Reid said. “He's a great representative and a heck of a football player.”
In other news, Reid said first-round draft pick Mansoor Delane was held out of the mandatory minicamp because of a relatively minor shoulder injury. The cornerback should be ready for the start of training camp at Missouri Western State University.
Wide receiver Rashee Rice also should be ready for camp after rehabbing a minor knee surgery while serving out a jail sentence.
The procedure to clean debris out of his right knee took place about a week before Rice was ordered to jail for violating the terms of his probation for his role in a car crash that left multiple people injured. The 26-year-old Rice was booked into the Dallas County jail on May 19 — he's been allowed out for supervised rehab work — and he is due to be released Tuesday.
“(Chiefs trainer) Rick (Burkholder) has talked to him more than what I have,” Reid said, “just making sure that everything was set where he could do some rehab with it and still do the time that he needed to take care of. So he's been on top of that, and thank good they're allowing him to do it. They've been great with that.”
Reid said his plan for the six weeks until training camp is to “step away,” but he sidestepped a question on whether “stepping away” involved attending the wedding of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop superstar Taylor Swift next month.
The exact date and location — presumably Madison Square Garden in New York — has been a closely guarded secret.
“Can’t talk about it," Reid said, smiling. "Listen, he’s been here most of the offseason, if not the whole offseason. He’s been around and it’s good to have him. He did the mandatory camp and did a nice job there, so it’s good to have him back in and rolling. He’s very excited. You see no distractions with that and the wedding. If it’s like when I got married, my wife did everything, so I just kind of followed her lead on it, showed up, right? Maybe he’s doing more but he looks like he’s pretty focused in on this job here, too.”
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