The most scrutinized thing in the NFL this week has been and continues to be the ankle of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes, considered the favorite to win the NFL MVP award, suffered a high-ankle sprain during the Chiefs’ win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday. He’s been adamant that the injury won’t sideline him when his team faces the Cincinnati Bengals during Sunday’s AFC Championship game, but it’s been widely speculated that he’ll be limited as a result of the injury.
Wednesday, fans got their first indication of how Mahomes’ ankle is doing. The results have been encouraging.
Not only did Mahomes tell reporters that he’s “doing good,” he took the practice field with his teammates Wednesday. James Palmer of NFL Network filmed him going through stretches and jogging prior to the practice.
While he did skip some of the movements that might have put torque on his ankle, he appeared to be moving around well.
NFL fans have generally been impressed by how mobile Mahomes looked in the video — so much so that a few are convinced the injury wasn’t actually as severe as the reported diagnosis.
“Fair to say he won’t be a statue out there,” one fan tweeted.
“I don’t have a blue checkmark or any kind of medical degree but have had multiple ankle injuries,” wrote another. “My analysis: looks a lot better than I expected him to.”
“Ok so they lied about the high ankle sprain,” a Bengals fan chimed in. “Got it.”
A few viewers expressed concern about Mahomes’ gait, saying he looked ginger when jogging. But others pointed out that it’s not unusual to see from him.
“Honestly how can you evaluate this video?” a fan wrote. “Pat runs like he stepped on some Legos barefoot all the time lol. I guess he looks good!”
“I can’t tell if that’s a soreness jog or just the way he normally jogs,” said another.
At this point, it seems apparent that Mahomes will be on the field when the Chiefs try to avenge last season’s loss to the Bengals in the conference title game.
As for how limited he’ll be by the injury, we won’t really know until the 6:30 pm kickoff.
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