Patrick Mahomes injury: Former NFL MVP says Chiefs should sit star QB to have him fresh for playoffs

The Kansas City Chiefs, despite sitting atop the AFC at 13-1, are now in a conundrum as it relates to their quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. The three-time Super Bowl champion suffered a high ankle sprain during the second half of Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns and was unable to return to the contest. 

CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones reports that Mahomes’ high ankle sprain now has him week-to-week, which begs the question of how much K.C. should push to get him back onto the field. The defending champions have already secured the AFC West crown and have a two-game lead over the Buffalo Bills for the No. 1 seed in the conference with three weeks remaining in the season. So, does Mahomes push to get back onto the field to lock in the No. 1 seed, or do the Chiefs opt for a more cautious approach and sit their franchise centerpiece to have him healthy for the postseason?

If Matt Ryan, a former league MVP and current NFL on CBS analyst, were pulling the strings, he’d go with the latter. 

“If it was me, I would sit him,” Ryan told CBS Sports HQ on Monday. “I think it’s most important to have him healthy for the playoff stretch, and ankles are tough. I know he’s done it in the playoffs before, kind of played through that and played really well with it, but those are playoff games. I look at this regular season, they’ve got a two-game lead in the AFC, they’ve got these two games back-to-back. Maybe you can get him back for Week 18 to get a little rhythm heading into the playoffs, but we’ll see what the extent of what the injury is and how he heals on it the next couple of days. 

“I’d have no qualms about getting him some rest and making sure that he’s healthy. In my opinion, you gotta have him as fresh as possible if you want to make a run towards their third Super Bowl.” 

Mahomes has dealt with a high ankle sprain before to this exact same right ankle. That came during Kansas City’s Super Bowl run in 2022, and Mahomes played extremely well. In the AFC Championship and Super Bowl LVII, when he was dealing with the injury, Mahomes completed 71% of his throws with a 115.7 passer rating. 

With that in mind, he does have a history of being able to endure this type of an injury. That said, as Ryan notes, Mahomes was in a do-or-die situation at the time of that prior injury, with it coming in the playoffs. This time around, he and the Chiefs have the benefit of time as he could take these remaining three weeks to heal up to be as fresh as possible for the playoff run.