Going into the biggest game of the year, both the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles would undoubtedly prefer to have fully healthy quarterbacks.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as though that’s going to be the case for either team. Eagles signal-caller Jalen Hurts is still working through that injury to his throwing shoulder that he suffered in week 15—which caused him to miss two weeks of action down the stretch.
As for the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, his ankle injury has been well-documented throughout the postseason. The NFL MVP suffered what was believed to be a high-ankle sprain during Kansas City’s Divisional Round matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He was miraculously able to finish that game, and he suited up the following week as well, during the Chiefs’ AFC Championship victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. He even made a key play with his legs during the dying seconds, setting up Harrison Butker for the game-winning field-goal.
Mahomes has had two weeks to rest his injured leg, but according to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, that hasn’t been enough to get their star QB back to 100 percent.
While speaking with Fox News on Friday, Hunt was asked about Mahomes’ status when he told the hosts, “I don’t know that he’ll be 100 percent, but he sure isn’t going to tell you otherwise.”
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“The great thing is Patrick ’s a very fast healer, and he was able to get ready to play the AFC Championship game, you know, in a week on that high ankle sprain and did just an amazing job, including making the pivotal play at the end of the game that helped us win it on his legs,”
Hunt said. “He’s doing great this week. I don’t know that he’ll be 100 percent, but he sure isn’t going to tell you otherwise.”
The hosts would press Hunt for more information, asking him if he could provide a specific percentage that we could expect to see Mahomes at on Sunday. Clark hesitated, thinking of a way around the question before his wife, Tavia Hunt, rescued him by saying, “It’s MVP.”
Mahomes will need to be healthy enough to evade an Eagles pass-rush that ranked first in the entire NFL in sacks. If he’s unable to do that, this year’s big game could be a repeat of Super Bowl 55, when the Buccaneers’ pass-rush completely dominated Mahomes and the Chiefs, en route to a 31-9 victory.
