All eyes will be on the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs when they cap off the 1st week of the 2026 regular season on Monday Night Football at Arrowhead Stadium.
The biggest question hanging over the game is singular — will Chiefs quarterback and 2-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes play or not?
Mahomes certainly seems determined to be on the field after tearing his ACL in Week 15 of the 2025 regular season, and seems more determined by who the Chiefs are playing after the Broncos ended Kansas City’s 9-year reign atop the AFC West Division in 2025.
It was the 1st major injury of Mahomes’ already-legendary career, which includes 3 Super Bowl wins and 2 more Super Bowl appearances.
“That’s my goal,” Mahomes told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday. “I’ve said that since the beginning is being ready to go Week 1. I can’t predict the future and I know that it’s a long process. It’s not just my decision, but at the same time I’m going to give the doctors and the coaches every single opportunity I can to let me be out there Week 1. I don’t want to miss that game (against the Broncos) because that’s the team that won the division while we were gone and you want to be out there and ready to go with your teammates. I’ll give every single thing I can to be out there Week 1 and hopefully the doctors and the coaches give me the green light and I’m able to go out there with my guys and compete against one of the best teams in the league.”
No Major Setbacks in Recovery for Patrick Mahomes
Mahomes’ latest comments continue what’s been a pretty straightforward recovery for the superstar, who became the highest-paid player in NFL history for the 2nd time in his career when he signed an 8-year, $504.75 million contract extension in June.
In a video posted to the Chiefs’ official social media accounts in May, Mahomes is seen dropping back and firing off a pass during OTAs, wearing a large brace on his surgically repaired left knee.
“QB1,” the Chiefs posted, with an emoji of a clock.
“Pretty clear Patrick Mahomes will be ready for Week 1 against the Broncos,” Broncos beat reporter Zac Stevens wrote on his official X account after the video was posted.
Mahomes is widely regarded as 1 of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history — even though he’s only been the Chiefs’ starting quarterback for 8 seasons.
Patrick Mahomes Coming Off ACL Tear in Week 15
Mahomes is returning from the 1st serious injury of his career — a torn ACL suffered in Week 15 of the 2025 regular season. There has been no concrete timetable for his return, but the NFL putting the Broncos, a Super Bowl contender, to face the Chiefs in the season opener in a primetime game seemed to be a big clue that he might be back.
The Broncos ended the Chiefs’ 9-year streak of AFC West Division titles in 2025, going 14-3 and earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC Playoffs.
The Chiefs went 6-11 and missed the playoffs for the 1st time since 2014 — 3 years before Mahomes was drafted and 4 years before he became the starting quarterback.
“You would never bet against Patrick Mahomes and the NFL certainly hasn’t,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said on May 15. “The league has scheduled the Chiefs for the opening Monday night game of the year. The league doesn’t do that unless they think that there’s a realistic chance that Patrick Mahomes is going to be back. And I think the feeling is right now you have to see how the knee is progressing during the course of the summer, but the feeling right now within the organization is that he is tracking to be ready for that Monday night game against Bo Nix, who is coming off his own surgeries on his ankle, and the Denver Broncos in Kansas City.”
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