Chiefs' doctor shares wildly confusing timeline for Patrick Mahomes' return from torn ACL

The Kansas City Chiefs did the football world a solid on Wednesday. They made their medical director available to talk to the media about Patrick Mahomes after the superstar QB's torn ACL.

That's Rick Burkholder, the Chiefs' Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance. And while he provided some concrete thoughts, he also made Mahomes' injury return timeline quite a bit more confusing, at least if you squint.

This is what The Kansas City Star's Sam McDowell shared on X:

"Rick Burkholder, Chiefs Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance, said the ballpark timeline for the Patrick Mahomes type of injury is 9 months, but it could be a month or two less or a month or two longer."

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OK, so that nine-month timeline is what is being thrown around a lot. And the fact that it could take a month or two longer isn't crazy. Players have taken closer to a full year to return from torn ACLs before.

But wait, "a month or two less"?

If our math is right, that'd get Mahomes back in... seven months, at the earliest? Mid July?

That seems pretty outlandish based on just about all the evidence of this injury ever, especially considering this is one of the few most important athletes in the entire world of professional sports. The Chiefs probably wouldn't overly rush it.

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Also, the Chiefs don't even have a ton of incentive to get Mahomes back in the middle of the summer. Even if he was somehow cleared that fast, Kansas City wouldn't rush their legendary QB to get too much work in too quickly.

Regardless of expectation, this is something that football fans everywhere will be watching closely. Mahomes' health will be a huge NFL storyline the entire offseason. And now we know what the Chiefs' doctor thinks of it.

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