{"id":45235,"date":"2025-12-15T00:13:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=45235"},"modified":"2025-12-15T00:13:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:13:28","slug":"chiefs-could-take-drastic-action-on-patrick-mahomes-after-playoff-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=45235","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Could Take Drastic Action on Patrick Mahomes After Playoff Elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"has-video wp-caption \">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 780 \/ 438;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; margin: 1em auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Patrick-Mahomes-Chargers-e1765748427172.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"Patrick Mahomes injury\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> Getty <\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Patrick Mahomes suffers an injury against the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Kansas City Chiefs\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/kansas-city-chiefs\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124196\">Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> will play the final month of the NFL season with no chance of making the playoffs \u2014 and could do it without quarterback <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Patrick Mahomes\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/patrick-mahomes\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124208\">Patrick Mahomes<\/a> on the field.<\/p>\n<p>Mahomes was hurt late in Sunday\u2019s loss to the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Los Angeles Chargers\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124195\">Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> on Sunday, which came amid a series of other outcomes that officially eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention. With Mahomes injured, the Chiefs could face a decision on whether to put the two-time MVP back on the field or start his healing process now.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Chiefs Could Choose to Bench Patrick Mahomes<\/h2>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/47306436\/patrick-mahomes-exits-knee-injury-chiefs-playoff-hopes-end\">ESPN\u2019s Nate Taylor<\/a> noted, it was immediately apparent that the injury to Mahomes was serious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMahomes was hurt after he scrambled out of the pocket and was chased down by Chargers defensive end <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Da'Shawn Hand\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/dashawn-hand\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124209\">Da\u2019Shawn Hand<\/a> before throwing an incompletion,\u201d Taylor wrote. \u201cHe remained down on the ground for several minutes before standing up and leaving and was replaced by <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Gardner Minshew\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/gardner-minshew\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124207\">Gardner Minshew<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taylor noted that Mahomes was quickly taken from the game and evaluated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA few minutes later, Mahomes exited the medical tent with a towel over his head while being assisted by the medical staff, walking gingerly to the locker room,\u201d Taylor wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs are awaiting further testing of the injury to Mahomes, but it was serious enough that he had to leave the game early and head to the locker room. The game ended when backup Gardner Minshew threw a late interception.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Mahomes is healthy enough to play next week, the Chiefs could choose to bench him and give him more time to heal. It\u2019s not clear what action the Chiefs will take, as this is uncharted territory. This is the first time that Mahomes has been eliminated from playoff contention in his career \u2014 with three games remaining.<\/p>\n<p>The decision would likely not come until later in the week, after the team has more time to evaluate the injury. Mahomes has pushed to play through pain in the past, including several playoff games with varying levels of injuries. But given the team\u2019s playoff elimination, the decision could come down to head coach Andy Reid.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Chiefs Have Precedent of Benching Patrick Mahomes<\/h2>\n<p>While Mahomes has never faced a regular-season game with no chance of reaching the playoffs, the team does have a precedent of giving him rest in meaningless regular-season games. The team benched him in Week 18 last season, after the Chiefs had clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Reid announced days before the season finale against the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Denver Broncos\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/denver-broncos\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124214\">Denver Broncos<\/a> that Mahomes and other key starters would ride the bench to avoid injury or added fatigue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a hard decision,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1874515658408628488\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener external\">Reid said<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve been through it before. \u2026 It gives the other guys an opportunity to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs suffered a blowout loss to the Broncos, which allowed their division rival to surpass the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Cincinnati Bengals\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/cincinnati-bengals\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124213\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> for the final playoff spot. But it also paid off for the Chiefs, who won their divisional-round game and took down the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Buffalo Bills\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/buffalo-bills\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"124212\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> in the AFC Championship to reach their third straight Super Bowl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty Patrick Mahomes suffers an injury against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Kansas City Chiefs will play the final month of the NFL season with no chance of making the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45237,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45235\/revisions\/45237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}