KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee in the closing minutes of Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Chargers, a result that ended Kansas City’s playoff hopes.
Mahomes underwent an MRI after the game that confirmed the injury. He and the Chiefs are now exploring surgical options, according to the team.
“Don’t know why this had to happen,” Mahomes wrote on social media. “And not going to lie, [it] hurts. 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.”
Mahomes was hurt with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
In an effort to rally the Chiefs, he scrambled out of the pocket, rolling to his right while he was chased down by defensive end Da’Shawn Hand. Once Mahomes planted his left foot and threw the ball away for an incompletion, his left knee buckled. After he fell to the turf, Mahomes immediately grabbed his left knee and winced in pain.
After the game, the atmosphere inside the Chiefs locker room was sorrowful; many of the veterans knew their leader had suffered the worst injury of his nine-year career.
“I just hugged him, man,” pass rusher Chris Jones said. “That’s my brother. We’ve been through so much. We love Pat.”
Mahomes is expected to have surgery in the coming days. He will miss the team’s offseason program, and his availability for the start of next season is now in question.
Mahomes, 30, has managed to stay free of long-term injuries during his NFL career.
In 2019, while executing a quarterback sneak, he dislocated his right kneecap but missed just two games — the longest absence of his career — and later that season led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years. The next year, during the postseason, Mahomes returned from a concussion and played through turf toe in his left foot, an injury that required surgery that offseason. And his most heroic moment playing through pain was in the 2022 postseason, when he led the Chiefs to another Super Bowl victory while having a high right ankle sprain.
“A lot of greats have done it,” Mahomes said in January 2023 of playing through injuries. “I think it’s just about being a competitor. You want to be out there, especially in these games.”
Even before Mahomes’ injury, the Chiefs were going to need to address several areas of their roster this offseason — a lackluster pass rush, a running game that has lacked production and a tight end group that may need to replace Travis Kelce if he retires. But that priority list now will have to include quarterback; the team doesn’t have another currently under contract for the 2026 season.
In the past five years, coach Andy Reid has valued having a veteran be Mahomes’ backup. The team could look to add such a player in free agency to at least operate the Chiefs offense through the offseason program, training camp, the preseason and even early into the regular season.
Kelce, 36, is in the final year of his contract. He shared last month that he plans to decide whether to return to the Chiefs by early March, before NFL free agency begins. Kelce’s favorite teammate is Mahomes, and the tight end declined to chat with reporters after Sunday’s game.
“Sorry guys, it’s not the time,” Kelce said. “I’ll catch you guys during the week.”
On the fifth snap after Mahomes exited, backup quarterback Gardner Minshew threw an ill-advised intermediate pass intended for Kelce that was intercepted by Chargers safety Derwin James Jr., ending the Chiefs’ comeback chances and their hopes at reaching the postseason for an 11th consecutive season, which would’ve tied the longest streak in NFL history.
“I felt very comfortable to go in and execute the offense,” Minshew said. “I hate that situation. I hate that I couldn’t deliver and get us a win and keep our [playoff] hopes alive.”
The Chiefs entered Sunday with just a 12% chance of clinching a postseason berth, according to ESPN Analytics. Even before the Chiefs’ game ended, those odds had dwindled when the Buffalo Bills, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans — three teams that already had defeated the Chiefs this season and were ahead of them in the standings — each won their games.
The Chiefs’ 10-year streak of making the playoffs was the longest by any team across the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
“Success is rented every year,” Jones said. “Sometimes it don’t go the way you planned for it to go. I think we learned a lot this year.
“We can be mad at ourselves, and we can ask God why. But at times, it’s a lesson that you’re being taught along the journey. We’d be selfish to ask God why. Why right now? Why this? We more so [have] to understand it and build from it.”
The Chiefs entered the season hoping to be just the second team in the Super Bowl era to return to the game’s biggest stage for a fourth consecutive season. Just 28 days ago, entering Week 11, they were favored to win the Super Bowl.
Instead, they were unable to reach the postseason largely because they couldn’t accomplish what they did a year ago: win one-score games. Last year, the Chiefs won 11 such games, the most in a single campaign in league history. But for many reasons this season — a lack of execution, the defense not getting off the field late and kicker Harrison Butker missing a career-high eight field goals — the Chiefs suffered seven one-score losses, including Sunday’s. The Chiefs’ 1-7 record in one-score games this season ranks last in the league.
“We’re just not finishing,” cornerback Jaylen Watson said. “It’s a play or two — or three. We’re just not finishing. It’s frustrating.”
Prior to this year, Mahomes never lost three consecutive games in the same season as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback. That streak ended Sunday.
Mahomes performed his best on the Chiefs’ opening drive. He made two clutch plays to give the Chiefs the lead. He converted a third-and-11 snap with a timely completion to Kelce, and he outwitted the Chargers’ zone coverage in the red zone with a 12-yard touchdown scramble.
But after that drive, the Chargers made everything else difficult for Mahomes, whether through pressure against the Chiefs’ makeshift offensive line — one that featured undrafted rookie left tackle Esa Pole (making his second career start) and right tackle Chukwuebuka Godrick (making his NFL debut) — or in man-to-man coverage to where the receivers couldn’t get open consistently.
The Chargers never blitzed Mahomes on any of his 35 dropbacks, the first time in his regular-season career that he wasn’t blitzed at least once, according to Next Gen Stats. The Chargers still pressured Mahomes 17 times, a 49% clip that was the highest pressure percentage he faced in a game this season. Mahomes completed just four of his 10 attempts when pressured for 53 yards with an interception.
Mahomes’ biggest mistake came in the fourth quarter, when he threw an interception in the red zone on a third-and-12 snap but an incompletion would’ve allowed Butker to attempt a game-tying field goal.
Mahomes also didn’t complete any of his four pass attempts inside the red zone, his most such attempts without a completion in a game in his career.
“We’ve got to do better when you get opportunities in the red zone or [with favorable] field position,” Reid said. “You’ve got to take advantage of that.”
With Mahomes out, Minshew is expected to be the team’s starter for the final three games of the regular season.
“It’s been hard to watch for Pat,” Minshew said. “That dude put so much into it. I don’t think I’ve ever respected anybody I’ve played with more. I’ve never seen someone I’ve played with give so much of themselves to the team. To not get the results is hard, but I’ve got more confidence in him than anybody to come back and be better than ever.
“He’s down, man, obviously. It’s a tough game, and it’s been a tough year to this point.”
