{"id":43886,"date":"2026-02-26T02:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886"},"modified":"2026-02-26T02:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:47:20","slug":"chiefs-qb-patrick-mahomes-predicted-to-not-start-nfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2248080328-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2248080328-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2248080328-1.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2248080328-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are amid the offseason, and Mahomes, of course, is rehabbing from an ACL and LCL injury that he sustained during the 2025-26 season. While Mahomes has been expected to start for the Chiefs in September when the 2026-27 games kick in, some don\u2019t think that will happen.<\/p>\n<p>Mahomes is the heartbeat of the Kansas City Chiefs, and without him, the team doesn\u2019t really have a chance to get back to the big game. During the 2025-26 NFL regular season, Mahomes notched 3,587 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, according to NFL research. He also had a 62.7 completion percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Now, it\u2019s being predicted that Mahomes won\u2019t start the 2026 season. So, who will start for the Kansas City Chiefs? Here\u2019s a possible starter.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Kansas City Chiefs May Start the 2026 Season Without Patrick Mahomes<\/h2>\n<p>In a Tuesday, February 24, feature for ESPN, NFL analyst Seth Walder projects that the Chiefs won\u2019t start with Mahomes. Instead, he has Marcus Mariota down as the starter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, this hinges on the recovery timeline of Patrick Mahomes, who had surgery in December to repair two ligaments in his left knee,\u201d Walder notes in the feature. \u201cMahomes has indicated he wants to be back for Week 1, and perhaps that will happen. But any prediction about his Week 1 status is just a guess, so I imagine that the Chiefs would want to be cautious with Mahomes, given his importance to the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, Walder notes that if the team wants \u201ca reliable backup\u201d who\u2019s able to \u201cideally win a few games while Mahomes finishes up his recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He adds that he thinks \u201cMariota fits the bill. The 32-year-old stood in for Jayden Daniels for eight starts in Washington last season and was capable, with a 50.2 QBR. He has a long history of being solid, which is essentially what Kansas City needs \u2014 a player who can keep the team afloat in Mahomes\u2019 absence but is willing to be a backup and won\u2019t be overly expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, it\u2019s worth noting that Walder has interesting picks sprinkled throughout his report, so he may be stirring things up with the Mahomes prediction. But, the Chiefs could do worse than having Mariota fill in for Mahomes.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Kansas City Chiefs Still Favored in the AFC Going Into 2026-27 Season<\/h2>\n<p>Even though the team didn\u2019t make it to the playoffs in the 2025-26 season, the oddsmakers in Las Vegas are still ranking the Kansas City Chiefs as one of the strongest teams in the AFC.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report from Draft Kings, the Chiefs are projected to have 10.5 wins next year. They\u2019re also No. 3 in the AFC, only behind the Ravens at No. 1 and Bills at No. 2.<\/p>\n<p>In a story out on Thursday, February 19, for Arrowhead Addict, Matt Conner discusses this faith in the team. He notes in the piece, \u201cOne year after the AFC West was twisted enough for the Chiefs to land in third place overall, the reigning division champs, the Denver Broncos, still haven\u2019t earned the benefit of the doubt that they\u2019ll repeat in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes may not start the NFL season, according to an analyst from ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansas-city-chiefs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes may not start the NFL season, according to an analyst from ESPN.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-26T02:47:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886\",\"name\":\"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season - Breaking News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-26T02:47:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-26T02:47:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\",\"name\":\"MrKen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrKen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season - Breaking News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season - Breaking News","og_description":"Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes may not start the NFL season, according to an analyst from ESPN.","og_url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886","og_site_name":"Breaking News","article_published_time":"2026-02-26T02:47:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"MrKen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrKen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886","name":"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season - Breaking News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png","datePublished":"2026-02-26T02:47:20+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-26T02:47:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kansas-city-bau-63.png","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=43886#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Predicted to Not Start NFL Season"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/","name":"Breaking News","description":"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15","name":"MrKen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrKen"},"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43889,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43886\/revisions\/43889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}