Chiefs’ Mahomes Won’t Be Only Quarterback Missing Offseason Time

Two quarterbacks, two comebacks

Nix now joins Mahomes entering the offseason program limited physically in what he can contribute. The Chiefs’ quarterback said earlier this month he’s expecting to do everything he can, however.

“I'll try to prepare myself to be ready to play in that Week 1,” Mahomes said on Jan. 15, “and have no restrictions. You want to be out there healthy and giving us the best chance to win. And so, obviously, hopefully be able to do some stuff at OTAs, and then get to training camp and hopefully be able to do a lot there.

“So, I'm excited for the process. It's a long process, but I'm excited for it.”

How long that process lasts, that’s the key question. While Mahomes is striving to return by Week 1, and Week 1 in 2026 fortuitously falls a week later than it normally would, the quarterback still has an uphill challenge.

And at least for on-field work, beginning with organized team activities in May, he’ll need to tap into how he handled his rookie season. The 10th-overall selection in the 2017 draft, Mahomes spent the offseason and training camp learning behind incumbent starter Alex Smith.

Similar to 2017

Mahomes wound up making his first NFL start in the season finale, ironically at Denver, before moving into the starting role in 2018 and leading the Chiefs to the AFC title game in an MVP season.

“Yeah, I think more than anything,” Mahomes said, explaining how he hopes to handle offseason workouts, “it’s just being in there, being in the room, being on the field as much as they'll let me.

“And then when I'm not able to take the reps, kind of getting those mental reps behind the play and seeing everything develop. The coaches will put me in the right position in order to do that.”

Mahomes now joins Nix as front-runners for the NFL’s 2026 comeback player of the year award, another honor players don’t want to win more than once.

“I’ll take it slow but at the same time,” he said, “I'll push to be out there as much as I can be. And so, we have a great plan in place as far as kind of where we want to get to, but we have to let it all play out and kind of take it a day at a time, which has been hard for me. But at the same time, it makes me get the best out every single day.”

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