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Patrick Mahomes II and the Kansas City Chiefs toughed out a gritty win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs — with a little help from backup quarterback Chad Henne.
After the game, Mahomes caught up with NBC on-field reporter Melissa Stark, and he revealed some of the behind-the-scenes details on his ankle injury that occurred late in the first quarter.
“Yeah, I did not want to go [into the locker room] and they kind of gave me the ultimatum of I wasn’t going back in the game unless I went in there,” Mahomes told Stark. “They’re trying to take care of me — we got a lot of great people over here — but it’s going to take a lot to keep me out of a football game.”
Mahomes also confirmed that the x-rays were negative and that he’ll be “good to go” for the AFC championship game.
Patrick Mahomes Credits Chad Henne, Teammates With Win Over Jaguars
As always, Mahomes was selfless when talking about his ridiculous one-legged performance against the Jaguars on Saturday evening.
“It’s a credit to the guys around me,” Mahomes replied when Stark asked how he managed to get through the game. “The offensive line kept me clean in the pocket, knowing that I couldn’t move, and guys made plays around me.”
The superstar added: “That’s what a great team does is when somebody gets a little banged up, everybody around them steps up.”
Later, he praised Henne for the job he did while Mahomes was sidelined.
“Chad Henne, man, he’s been in the building every single day, he’s made me so much of a better quarterback in the way he teaches me,” Mahomes began. “Just the most ready-to-go at all times quarterback, man, [he’s] a special type of guy and he stepped up and drove it 98 yards [for a] touchdown which ended up being the difference in the game.”
Superstar tight end Travis Kelce also offered his game ball to Henne, joking that “Henne-thing is possible,” as the fans of Chiefs Kingdom often say.
Chiefs Reactions From Teammates on Patrick Mahomes’ Injury
Different teammates were questioned on their thoughts after Mahomes’ injury. While on the field with NFL Network reporter James Palmer, defensive team leader Frank Clark voiced that “you don’t [ever] want to see that” for any player. Continuing: “It touched us all. We want the best for him, we want him as healthy as possible out there so he can help us win. Just knowing when we got back to the locker room that we could check on him — we knew everything was alright [and] it wasn’t as serious as we initially thought — that was the best feeling in the world right there just knowing our teammate is healthy.”
Henne also called him the “ultimate competitor and teammate,” adding that he was on the sideline encouraging him the entire time the backup QB was in the game.
Going around the horn, center Creed Humphrey admitted that Mahomes made it pretty clear to his offensive teammates that he was coming back into the game at some point, while linebacker Nick Bolton told The Athletic’s Nate Taylor that he didn’t know that until his QB1 returned in the third quarter.
Finally, Kelce was candid about his immediate reaction to the Mahomes injury with Stark after the game. “You don’t want to go down the terrain of thinking the worst, but you automatically do,” he stated. “He’s our fearless leader. We go as he goes and even when he had to step out, he was still on that sideline making sure we were good and making sure we were locked in. That’s why he’s the ultimate competitor — even when he’s down, he’s still not out.”
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