Chiefs doctors and Andy Reid disagree on Patrick Mahomes decision

The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to bounce back after the most disappointing season of the Andy Reid era.

Patrick Mahomes suffered the first major injury of his career, and while he's already back out there, the team must err on the side of caution.

According to Chiefs insider Nate Taylor, that's why they'll hold him out of all three preseason games, even though he's already been fully cleared in training camp.

Speaking on the "Chiefs Report" podcast, he revealed that Mahomes would play in Week 1, but there's no need to put him in harm's way right now.

Andy Reid may want to play Patrick Mahomes

“There’s no reason to play him in the preseason. But man, if they played the Broncos on Sunday, he would be out there,” Taylor said.

However, this isn't necessarily what the head coach would prefer. Per Taylor, Andy Reid would want to see Mahomes play at least one drive, but it's highly unlikely that the team will allow that:

“I know Andy would feel like, I just wanna see [Mahomes play] from an operation standpoint just one time,” Taylor said. “But the medical staff understands that like the longer he has to wait to get hit on that leg, the better.”

At the end of the day, this is a marathon, not a sprint. The Chiefs don't need Mahomes on the field now, and they don't stand a chance to make another deep postseason run if he's not healthy when it actually counts.

Also, even if he has to shake off the rust, he's already more than familiar with returning offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and his personnel, so there's no need to take unnecessary risks after such a long and aggressive recovery process.