Chiefs Player Quotes
January 15, 2026
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
Q: How has rehab been going and is there a date or range that you are aiming for to be back?
MAHOMES: “First off, rehab is going great so far. I’ve been hitting all the checkpoints that the doctor wants you to do and getting the strength and the range of mobility back. So, that’s been going great. I’ve been doing all of it here in Kansas City so far. (Assistant Athletic Trainer) Julie (Frymyer) has been crushing it, pushing me. The doctor kind of gives you goals to get to, and I just try to maximize those, and they hold me back because I always want to go a little bit further. It’s been going great. I think the long-term I want to be ready for Week 1. The doctor says that I could be, but I can’t predict what’s going to happen throughout the process but that’s my goal, so I’ll try to prepare myself to be ready to play in that Week 1 and have no restrictions. You want to be out there healthy and giving us the best chance to win. Obviously, I hope to be able to do some stuff in OTAs and get to training camp and hopefully be able to do a lot there. I’m excited for the process. It’s a long process, but I’m excited for it.”
Q: You mentioned OTAs and training camp. You layer onto the playbook every year, how will you keep up to speed? Do you take things from your experience your rookie year?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I think more than anything 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. I’ll take it slow, but at the same time, I’ll push to be out there as much as I can be. We have a great plan in place as far as 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 of every single day.”
Q: What was that moment like for you on the field after the injury?
MAHOMES: “Obviously, I knew something had happened but once I was able to walk a little bit, I thought I might have a chance to get back into the game. You kind of go into the tent, they did the test, and they wanted to take me back into the locker room. You don’t know for sure or anything like that, but when I was able to move, I asked one of the doctors if I could get a brace and just finish the game, but they wouldn’t let me. Obviously, it kind of sunk in once the game ended and then I was able to get the results from the MRI and stuff like that which it’s hard but at the same time you have to flip the script fast knowing that it’s going to be a quick turnaround to get to this season. Now it’s just been motivating trying to push myself, like I said, as much as they’ll let me push myself to be ready for next year.”
Q: How will this impact what you usually do with the receivers during the offseason?
MAHOMES: “I can’t speak exactly for what (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid exactly is going to do. I would expect us to kind of be here a little bit earlier just with me already being here. I’ve talked with some of the receivers already, I think that’s kind of the mindset that we have is we want to be in the building and getting back to it. The thing about when you lose and you don’t make the playoffs is you have a longer offseason than you usually have. I think guys are getting away right now, kind of getting their minds right, getting their bodies right. Guys are hungry to get back out there. It’s hard to watch these playoff games. We’ll be in the building, and we’ll try to build that camaraderie that way is just doing stuff around Kansas City, maybe take them to some Royals games, whatever that is and try to build those relationships with those guys and being in the building you’ll be able to get the same work that you would’ve gotten down in Texas.”
Q: What went wrong in 2025 in your opinion?
MAHOMES: “I think just compounding mistakes. You make mistakes throughout a game. For myself, I look at some of the red zone interceptions I threw in kind of bigger moments in the third and fourth quarter of games. That’s stuff that I haven’t done in the past, and so speaking for myself, just trying to be better in those moments. I think offensively we weren’t consistent enough throughout games. We had stretches in games where we played good, we had stretches in the season where we played really good. We’ve got to be better and that starts with me and then it kind of has to feed throughout the entire offense. So, I think like I said, guys are motivated, coaches, players, we’re all motivated to be better this next year. Like I said, it sucks watching these games. I want to be out there playing football, especially this time of year, it’s the best time of year to play football. It’ll give us the motivation, hopefully, for us to come back stronger next year.”
Q: What does the offense need to do with extra time to evaluate?
MAHOMES: “You just have to dive deep into that scheme evaluation and seeing what teams are seeing against us. I think the one part of having so much success is teams watch a lot of film on you, so we try to have good game plans of how to combat what you do and what you’ve done well. You saw that this year, teams were very conscious of the plays that we’ve hit for a long time. So, we have to find ways to counteract that and kind of go at teams and be able to utilize that and make more explosive plays. If we can get back to some of that stuff as well as being consistent on a down-to-down basis that will be stuff that we have to continue to get better at. I think there’s minor tweaks, but at the same time you have to look at the entire picture and see if you can be better at every single area. We’ll see what we get to after watching the film, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes in order to go out there and have success.”
Q: What has Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy meant to you over the past several years?
MAHOMES: “I love (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Matt) Nagy, and he’s done a lot of great things in my career to help me become the quarterback that I am. I know that he’s looking to take that step and get back to the head coaching spot and I hope he gets another opportunity to do that. He’s a great man, a great person, and it’s been cool to see the changes as him as a coach and him going to be a head coach and then coming back but he gave me a lot of ideas to be better as a person (and) as a quarterback and so I’m hoping the best for him as he goes through this head coaching process and he gets another opportunity to go out there and lead an organization.”
Q: Is your surgery more of a repair or a reconstruction?
MAHOMES: “Honestly, both of them I feel like mean the same thing. But I think what I got from my doctor that cleared it up for me was obviously I had the ACL and LCL, but everything else was clean. As bad as it was, it was as clean as it could be. I found out there’s a lot of little things that can happen around that knee that I’ve never even known. So, I was lucky enough – God blessed me enough to not do some of things that could prolong the injury. So now it’s about rehabbing (and) getting the LCL and ACL right. Giving it time to rest, but at the same time building up that strength so that whenever I am ready to go, I’m ready to go.”
Q: On balancing rehab and still preparing for future years.
MAHOMES: “Yeah for sure that’s something that I have to think of I think the coaches (and) the organization all has to think of. At the same time that’s why they give me limits to where I can push it. Dr. Cooper described that to me – so I’ll give you the limits of what you can push it to and then it’s up to you how far you want to push it to that limit. Knowing me, I’m going to push it to that exact limit every single day. There’s places you can’t go yet which I want to but can’t go yet but at the same time, they’re doing it for a reason. That starts with Dr. Cooper and his team (and) it starts with (Assistant Athletic Trainer) Julie (Frymyer) and (Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance) Rick (Burkholder) and all of them in the training room and it feeds throughout the entire organization.”
Q: How important is your relationship with Assistant Athletic Trainer Julie Frymyer when you’re going through an injury like this?
MAHOMES: “I think it’s extremely important because what I’ve found out throughout this process is not every day is going to feel amazing. There’s some days you’re going to be sore or some days you’re going to feel stiff, but you have to have someone you trust that’s going to get the best out of you, that’s going to keep you safe and someone that’s going to push you more than anything. Some days I want to go in there and crush rehab (and) some days I just want to get through it, but she (Assistant Athletic Trainer Julie Frymyer) doesn’t let you have the get through it days. She pushes you to be the best every single day. It’s been a different process, kind of jumping right into working out like this. I always worked out, built up throughout the offseason, but it’s been fun to be with people that care about me and that want to push me to be the best that I can be. I’m in that training room every single day, and I’m trying to make sure that I’m ready to go as quickly as possible.”
Q: Are you going to do all your rehab in Kansas City?
MAHOMES: “We’ve actually already had a good plan, and I met with (Assistant Athletic Trainer) Julie (Frymyer) and Bobby (Stroupe) and (Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance) Rick (Burkholder) and the whole team. I’ll be here mostly in Kansas City. There will be times I will be in Dallas with meeting with Dr. Cooper and being with his team as well. It’s been great to see the collaboration with everybody so that we have a plan for every single day that I have this offseason and you have to maximize all those days. A lot of it will be in Kansas City. There will be times where Rick and Julie might be down in Dallas with Dr. Cooper helping me out there as well. I’m doing whatever I can to maximize every day, so we have a good plan that we’ve talked through every single day of this entire offseason.”
Q: What are the traits that you want in an offensive coordinator? Are there specific names?
MAHOMES: “Obviously there’s names out there but with how many vacancies there are at the head coaching job, you have to let that all play out to see how you build the staff. I know (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid – if (Offensive Coordinator Matt) Nags is able to get another head coaching job, that he’ll (Head Coach Andy Reid) have a good plan of who he wants to bring in. But for me, I just want someone that loves football, that cares about football, wants to give everything they can to win, to hold people accountable and then to bring new ideas every single day. That’s something that we have to continue to do if you want to continue to be great in this league, is you have to continue to evolve and get better and better and that’s something that we’ll try to do here and I want to get back to that winning culture of being accountable to each other and going out there and playing great football every single day, practice or game.”
Q: On the mental side of rehab.