Patrick Mahomes Return Means Good Things For The Chiefs And Fantasy Football
Fantasy

Patrick Mahomes Return Means Good Things For The Chiefs And Fantasy Football

Ian Hartitz breaks down the fantasy football impact for the return of Patrick Mahomes to the Kansas City Chiefs.

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How many times have we seen Patrick Mahomes battling through an injury, only to put on the Superman cape and lead the Kansas City Chiefs to victory? That's why it was so jarring to see him writing in pain on the field at Arrowhead Stadium last December, the Chiefs' season circling the drain as he was carted off the field with a torn ACL. With the 2026 season kicking off almost exactly nine months following surgery, could Mahomes be back on the field and lead the Chiefs' offense back to prominence? Ian Hartitz breaks it down as part of his Kansas City Chiefs Team Preview.

What should expectations be for Patrick Mahomes coming off last season's knee injury?

Well, the good news is Mahomes himself said the goal is to be on the field for Week 1. Andy Reid also sounds fairly optimistic. The timeline for return isn't really anything out of the ordinary according to learned doctors.

Of course, even if he is active, we shouldn't expect Mahomes to be 100% back athletically to start the season, right? It certainly seems possible, if not responsible, that the Chiefs could try to limit their longtime franchise QB's impact in the run game by deploying more of a run-first approach in the early going.

This is especially pertinent in fantasy land because last season's return to fantasy heights was almost entirely thanks to Mahomes racking up WAY more rushing production than we've previously seen.

Whether you want to blame the Chiefs' recent struggles to replicate their 2018-2022 offensive dominance on the absence of Tyreek Hill, their increasingly stale RPO-heavy scheme, or the three-time Super Bowl champion QB not holding up his end of the bargain: Mahomes went from a fantasy world beater to the position's QB12, QB11 and QB4 over the past three seasons—and we probably should expect the 2026 edition to have rushing numbers far more in line with what we saw in the first seven seasons of his career.

Maying bringing back Eric Bieniemy simply gets this passing attack back to operating with elite efficiency, although I don't love the fact that Bieniemy struggled to get much of anything going running offenses with the Commanders (25th-ranked scoring offense) and at UCLA (126th out of 134 programs). The lack of any meaningful additions to the WR and TE rooms also isn't ideal.

Ultimately, I've not made a habit of clicking Mahomes' name as the QB11 (pick 90.2) in early summer drafts. Is it terrifying to doubt the league's best QB in 10+ years, not named Tom Brady, at his cheapest price ever? Absolutely, but it's been three full seasons since we've seen the soon-to-be 31-year-old veteran reach his early-career heights in fantasy land when not weaponizing his scrambling ability—something we have reason to believe could be compromised in 2026 due to injury.

Also note: Justin Fields, QB2! One of very few backup QBs who we could realistically fire up in the top-12 conversation if an injury occurred, there's also at least some potential for Fields to start a game or two at the outset of the season, depending on Mahomes' timeline for return. Maybe Andy Reid and company unlock something in the former No. 11 overall pick and get Fields' processing to work at 1.25x speed. But hey, if not, we're still looking at someone who has basically never provided anything less than QB1 fantasy production when on the field despite the obvious reality that Fields has never functioned as anyone's idea of a good real-life QB.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Patrick Mahomes
    PatrickMahomesQ
    QBKCKC
    PPG
    20.4
    Proj
    283.6

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