Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes has high-ankle sprain, status for Week 16 uncertain

The Chiefs finally got to save their fingernails. After 10 one-score victories, Kansas City had a little breathing room in a 21-7 win at Cleveland on Sunday. But they may have lost their quarterback for at least one game.

With the Chiefs up by two touchdowns and eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, three Browns defenders pulverized Patrick Mahomes. The quarterback limped off the field, had his ankle taped and stood on the sideline watching Carson Wentz finish the game. Per NBC’s Mike Florio, Mahomes has a high-ankle sprain. X-rays were negative.

“It’s usually the day after when you kind of get a good sense of it,” Mahomes said after the win. “I feel like I could’ve finished the game in different circumstances. I think the smart decision, and we talked about it, was to put Carson in. He’s played a lot of football and he finished the game well.”

Unlike Mahomes’ ankle sprain during the postseason two years ago, this injury comes in the shadow of two significant obstacles facing the Chiefs. First, the team on Sunday kicked off a stretch of three games in 11 days, including Saturday’s clash with the Texans and a Christmas Day contest at Pittsburgh. Secondly, their pass protection has been subpar to say the least and an injury that limits the mobility of Mahomes is a daunting challenge.

“Let’s start with this,” said former quarterback Jason Garrett Sunday on Football Night in America. “Line 1 with Patrick Mahomes for me, mental and physical toughness. We’ve seen this throughout his career. The guy plays through his injuries. He plays big in the big moments.

“Mobility is important for him, certainly this year; they’re not blocking people real well up front and he needs to be able to extend plays … a lot of football left and, in the next week and a half, a lot of good defenses.”

Left tackle has caused a lot of heartburn for Andy Reid and this week was no different. Newly acquired veteran D.J. Humphries, who made his 2024 return last week following season-ending ACL surgery, was inactive with a hamstring injury. Reid opted to start guard Joe Thuney to fill the void and Thuney shut out Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett. In fact, the Chiefs halted a stretch of allowing sacks in 10 straight games.

Until the injury, Sunday was about defense. Kansas City registered five sacks, two by George Karlaftis. More impressively, Kansas City posted six takeaways, including three interceptions of Jameis Winston before Kevin Stefanski benched the quarterback. The Chiefs got interceptions from safety Bryan Cook, linebacker Nick Bolton, safety Jaden Hicks and cornerback Trent McDuffie, who picked off a pass for the first time in his 48-game career.

Samaje Perine recovered a James Proche fumble on an early punt return to set up Mahomes’ first touchdown pass, to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Drue Tranquill also recovered a fumble.

Mahomes finished 19 of 38 for 159 yards with no interceptions and touchdowns to Smith-Schuster and Noah Gray. Xavier Worthy also scored a rushing touchdown to give the Chiefs a 21-0 advantage.

Should the injury sideline Mahomes against Houston, Wentz would make his first start since the 2023 season finale with the Rams. Wentz has started 93 games but only two since the end of 2022. Since Mahomes became the Chiefs’ starter at the end of the 2017 season, Kansas City is 2-2 without him in the starting lineup.

Kansas City is 13-1 for the second time in franchise history, matching the 2020 club for the best start in team annals.

For more information on the Chiefs and Browns, visit the Kansas City and Cleveland team pages at ProFootballPost.com.