Kansas City are planning for it and the recovery clock agrees, but Mahomes has not been cleared for full contact yet.
Patrick Mahomes tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee on 14 December 2025, during a Week 15 game against the Los Angeles Chargers. He had surgery in Dallas days later. The Chiefs lost their quarterback and their season on the same afternoon. Seven months on, the question fans keep asking is a plain one. Will he be ready for Week 1?
The people around him are saying yes. Andy Reid has said on the record that he is optimistic Mahomes will be ready for camp. Mahomes got through the off-season programme and took part in some team drills in the spring. Kansas City open training camp on 24 July at Missouri Western State University, with the first practice for fans on 29 July.
The calendar agrees with the optimism. A torn ACL usually needs about 9 months of recovery. Count 9 months on from 14 December and you reach the middle of September, which is Week 1 and Week 2 of the new season. Mahomes has kept Week 1 as his target throughout.
The honest answer comes with a caution, and that caution comes from the Chiefs themselves. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reports that the club expects Mahomes to be fully cleared around now, but that the word inside the building is patience. He has not yet been cleared for 11-on-11 work, the full-contact team drills. The plan is to bring him back to those in stages rather than all at once. The reporting is that he will get there by the end of camp.
So the answer is a qualified yes. Everything that can be planned is being planned for Week 1. What is not settled is his workload in August, and whether a knee 7 months out of surgery holds up to full contact before it holds up to a season. Reid can be optimistic. Nobody is certain until Mahomes takes a hit and gets back up.