The people who do the NFL schedule aren’t stupid, and they have inside information none of us has access to.
In the case of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, it appears they may have known he was going to be available for a Week 1 Monday Night Football showdown against the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium before the rest of the football-loving world.
In a video posted to the Chiefs’ official social media accounts on Tuesday, Mahomes is seen dropping back and firing off a pass during OTAs, wearing a large brace on his surgically repaired left knee.
“QB1,” the Chiefs posted, with an emoji of a clock.
“Pretty clear Patrick Mahomes will be ready for Week 1 against the Broncos,” Broncos beat reporter Zac Stevens wrote on his official X account after the video was posted.
Mahomes, a 3-time Super Bowl champion and 2-time NFL MVP, is widely regarded as 1 of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history — even though he’s only been the Chiefs’ starting quarterback for 8 seasons.
Patrick Mahomes Coming Off ACL Tear in Week 15
Mahomes is returning from the 1st serious injury of his career — a torn ACL suffered in Week 15 of the 2025 regular season. There has been no concrete timetable for his return, but the NFL putting the Broncos, a Super Bowl contender, to face the Chiefs in the season opener in a primetime game seemed to be a big clue that he might be back.
The Broncos ended the Chiefs’ 9-year streak of AFC West Division titles in 2025, going 14-3 and earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC Playoffs.
The Chiefs went 6-11 and missed the playoffs for the 1st time since 2014 — 3 years before Mahomes was drafted and 4 years before he became the starting quarterback.
“You would never bet against Patrick Mahomes and the NFL certainly hasn’t,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said on May 15. “The league has scheduled the Chiefs for the opening Monday night game of the year. The league doesn’t do that unless they think that there’s a realistic chance that Patrick Mahomes is going to be back. And I think the feeling is right now you have to see how the knee is progressing during the course of the summer, but the feeling right now within the organization is that he is tracking to be ready for that Monday night game against Bo Nix, who is coming off his own surgeries on his ankle, and the Denver Broncos in Kansas City.”
Broncos Also Dealing With Serious QB Injury Issues
Mahomes, somehow, is seemingly already ahead of Broncos starting quarterback Bo Nix in terms of when they can return to action.
Nix is coming off a fractured ankle he suffered in an overtime win over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Round.
Originally projected to keep him out 4-6 weeks, Nix now seems like he won’t be back until training camp, at least.
NFL insider James Palmer reported during a recent appearance on the “Up & Adams Show” that the 2024 1st round pick won’t even be cleared as a full participant in team activities until July, following a surprise follow-up surgery on the ankle in April.
“This was a big talking point in Denver because everybody was going ‘He’s ahead of schedule’ from (owner) Greg Penner to (head coach) Sean Payton to (general manager) George Paton,” Palmer said. “Everything is perfectly fine. Easy procedure … and then he has a 2nd procedure, and it slides him back a little bit. But he’ll be on the field in June, and he’ll be full-go in July, so when training camp starts, he should be right there.’
Broncos Get ‘Pretty Clear’ Message on Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes for Week 1 Showdown