For the first time since taking over the quarterback role at the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes will not be playing football in January. The Chiefs are officially out of playoff contention after the loss to the Chargers. To put the final nail in the coffin, Mahomes suffered an ACL injury. Will he be back before the end of the season?

NFL Insider Jonathan Jones laid out a realistic timeline for his return, and the Chiefs fans won’t be happy.

“Sometimes, with ACL, you can’t have surgery immediately because of swelling that may be going on at the location of the necessary surgery. Why am I talking about when the surgery is going to take place? A torn ACL recovery is around 8 months. So if you were to have surgery this coming week, 8 months from then is right up against the start of the 2026 season,” he said.

That’s the uncomfortable part. The issue isn’t just the injury, but the timing of the surgery itself. If the swelling goes down quickly, things move along. If it doesn’t, everything gets pushed back. And that “when” could ultimately determine whether Mahomes is ready for Week 1 or watching from the sideline.

Watching it happen in real time, it didn’t look promising. Mahomes was scrambling, trying to buy time and unload the ball, when Da’Shawn Hand got just enough of him to send him awkwardly to the turf. He stayed down. The reaction said plenty. This wasn’t a tweak or a minor scare. He was in some serious pain.

Mahomes addressed it himself before the full details were even public.

“Don’t know why this had to happen. And not going to lie, it’s hurts,” Mahomes had posted on social media prior to the news. “But all we can do now is Trust in God and attack every single day over and over again. Thank you, Chiefs Kingdom, for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I will be back stronger than ever.”

Jonathan Jones cleared up some other doubts, too.

Did Patrick Mahomes suffer a career-ending injury?

Head coach Andy Reid didn’t sugarcoat it afterward. He said the injury “didn’t look good” in his postgame interview, and anyone who watched it unfold knew exactly what he meant. Seeing Mahomes go down like that naturally sent Chiefs fans to the same place: the big picture. What does this mean long-term? Does this change anything about who he is as a player?

Jonathan Jones tried to settle that question. In his view, this is a setback, not a turning point. Mahomes is 30 years old, still in the middle of his prime, and there’s nothing about this injury that suggests it should linger beyond being a chapter in his career rather than a defining moment.

For Chiefs fans, that part is the reassurance. Everything has to be built around getting Mahomes back to full strength before the start of 2026. This season was buried early, and the concern now is making sure the next one doesn’t start the same way. Kansas City opened this year with two straight losses. They can’t afford to dig that hole again.

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They also need Mahomes to look like Mahomes when he does return. Statistically, this was the most uneven season of his career. Going into Week 15, he had a career-low 63.1 completion percentage. His passer rating, 91.2, was also the lowest he’s posted as a starter.

And yet, the flashes were still there. There were stretches when he looked every bit like the MVP-level quarterback the league has come to expect. It just didn’t hold consistently from week to week. That’s the standard in Kansas City now. The Chiefs don’t need a different Mahomes. They just need him healthy, whole, and back in rhythm. If that happens, this season becomes a footnote.