NBA veteran Draymond Green has delivered a sobering message to supporters of the Kansas City Chiefs: prepare for the possibility of being without star quarterback Patrick Mahomes for the entirety of the 2026 NFL season.
A Long and Arduous Road to Recovery
The warning comes after Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl champion, suffered a catastrophic knee injury during a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. Medical scans confirmed the quarterback tore both his ACL and LCL, injuries that immediately ended his 2025 campaign.
While Green, a power forward for the Golden State Warriors, has no personal experience with an ACL tear and last played organised American football in 2011, he emphasised the brutal reality of rehabilitating from such a significant setback in professional sport. Speaking to podcaster Jordan Schultz, Green outlined the typical timeline.
"These ACLs are really 10-to-12-month processes," Green stated. "Although people do them in six or eight months, these things are 10-to-12-month processes."
The Financial Imperative for Caution
For Green, the Chiefs' monumental financial commitment to their franchise player should dictate extreme caution. In 2020, Mahomes signed a landmark 10-year, $450 million contract extension, with approximately $265 million remaining on the deal.
This investment, Green argues, outweighs the short-term competitive pain of potentially missing the playoffs next season. "He's got another 10 years of football," Green said of the 30-year-old Mahomes. "So are you rushing back in five, six months? The investment in that guy is too big for that."
Green's advice to the Chiefs' front office was blunt: "If I'm the Chiefs, I'm looking at it like, 'We need to get the best backup we can get because we don't have him going into next year.'"
The Daily Reality of a Major Injury
Beyond the games missed, Green stressed the profound personal impact a severe injury has on an athlete's entire life, a perspective he feels is often forgotten by fans and pundits alike.
"He's a competitor, he's a champion, so he's going to do all he can to get back next year," Green acknowledged. "But I think people tend to forget that you're not just missing games or missing practice. You live that injury every day. You want to play with your kids, you live that injury. You get up off the couch, you live that injury. It impacts your way of life."
The Chiefs do have an experienced option in backup Gardner Minshew, 29, a 2023 Pro Bowl selection with the Indianapolis Colts who has 46 career starts. He will have the final weeks of this season to audition for the starting role in Mahomes' likely absence.
Green is acutely aware of the risks of a rushed rehabilitation, having witnessed his former Warriors teammate Klay Thompson tear his ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals, only to then rupture his Achilles tendon while rehabbing the following year. Thompson was sidelined for over 900 days before returning to the court.
