Patrick Mahomes does not do quiet. Even in an offseason when he is not fully healthy, a video of him swinging a golf club sparked a national conversation about whether the Kansas City Chiefs will have their franchise quarterback ready for opening week.
The clip, posted to Mahomes’ X account during the “15 and Mahomies” Golf Classic on Friday, showed the three-time Super Bowl champion taking his tee shot exactly five months after undergoing left ACL and LCL reconstruction surgery in Dallas.
Patrick Mahomes Golf Video Sparks Debate on His Week 1 Availability
The video spread fast, and the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. But the most substantive take came from a credentialed source.
Jeff Mueller, PT, DPT (@jmthrivept), a physical therapist, broke down exactly what the footage meant from a clinical standpoint.
“Underrated note: Patrick Mahomes is 5 months 1 day out from LEFT ACL/LCL recon. His golf swing has his left knee as the lead leg, meaning it absorbs the majority of the torsional and shear stress through his swing (including varus stress to LCL). Pretty clean swing at 5 months!”
That is not a casual observation, as the lead leg in a right-handed golf swing is the left leg, meaning every rotation through impact is loading the exact knee that was reconstructed. Varus stress specifically targets the LCL, which Mahomes also had repaired alongside the ACL.
The fact that he is handling that load fluidly at the five-month mark is a meaningful data point, even if the golf course is a long way from a third-and-eight scramble in a playoff game.
Former Chiefs quarterback Chase Daniel was also confident after seeing the video that Mahomes can play in Week 1. “The internal rotation on his left knee looks pretty damn good to me,” he wrote on X. “If he’s golfing, he’s playing Week 1.”
Kicking off the @15andMahomies Golf Classic presented by @CoorsLight pic.twitter.com/RsD24K4cDy
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) May 15, 2026
“Seeing Patrick Mahomes already playing golf is a great sign. I think his knee looks fine,” wrote Brad Henson Productions on X.
An optimistic user on X went straight to the logic of it: “I’m pretty confident that if he wasn’t good to go a doctor would not be okay with him golfing. Neither would the team. And neither would Bobby Stroupe. So, I think this is a sign that we’re full steam ahead.”
Bobby Stroupe is Mahomes’ longtime personal trainer and the man most responsible for the structured rehab program keeping the 30-year-old on schedule. The idea that the Chiefs quarterback is on a golf course without both medical and training staff clearance is essentially zero.
“Well that’s a nice sign,” wrote DMac Wake, in what may be the most efficient summary of the morning.
The Sleeper Chiefs account kept it equally simple: “Knee looks fine to me.”
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The Chiefs VP of sports medicine, Rick Burkholder, said in December that Mahomes’ recovery would take approximately nine months, which projects his return to around September 15, in the Week 2-3 range of the 2026 season.
The NFL, which loaded Kansas City with prime-time windows in this week’s schedule release, acknowledged it had some visibility into that timeline.
NFL executive Hans Schroeder told reporters the league went into schedule-building hoping Mahomes would be back for Week 1 and said it “felt really good about it” after hearing Andy Reid’s most recent rehab updates.
Whether that optimism translates into Mahomes taking a Week 1 snap remains unconfirmed. Justin Fields is in Kansas City as the backup option, with Kenneth Walker III signed in free agency to anchor the running game if the Chiefs need to manage the quarterback’s workload.
But a clean golf swing at five months, on the lead leg, absorbing the exact stress his surgery addressed, is the kind of update that turns speculation into genuine belief.
