Hands Up If You Also Thought Mahomes’ Elbow Injury Was Season-Ending at First

For a moment on Sunday, it looked like the Chiefs' season was over. Then Patrick Mahomes asked for a football.

Rich set it up by remembering last year, when Mahomes suffered a significant knee injury that was season-ending and offseason-altering. That was shocking, Rich said, for a lot of reasons, starting with the star of stars going down. But it was also shocking because Mahomes has a long history of injuries that look horrifying and then amount to very little. "When Mahomes retires," Rich said, "he will definitely go in as the guy who suffered the ugliest injuries that otherwise amounted to nothing." Rich recalled the time Mahomes' kneecap ended up about 90 degrees from where it belonged, and they snapped it back in, and he missed maybe one game.

Sunday looked like the end for real. David Bailey hit Mahomes just as he began to throw, and his elbow wound up in an awful position. He came up grimacing, his arm dangling, holding it as he walked off. "You could hear a pin drop in Kansas City," Rich said. Around the studio, the reaction was the same. "Oh man, this entire season is over."

Of all teams, Rich said, it would be the Jets forcing Kansas City to go to Justin Fields. Fields came in for one play and fumbled, with the Jets defense balling out early. It was 14-12 at halftime after Butker missed not one but two kicks wide right. Then, guess who came back into the game? "Like it was nothing," someone said. Rich described seeing Mahomes on the sideline saying, "Give me a ball." His reaction: "What the hell? It's unbelievable."

Rich's relief was genuine, and he doubled down on a stance he knows annoys people. "This league's better when the Chiefs are good, if not great, or Super Bowl worthy," he said. That is not the way he wants to see the Chiefs' season end, and "if you do want to see the Chiefs season end, neither should you."

Andy Reid said Mahomes is day-to-day, along with Xavier and Jaylen. "It was more positive news than negative news on Patrick," Reid said. "It looks like it's just a matter of some rehab in there and getting rid of some of the soreness." Mahomes was in good spirits, Reid added.

"Thank goodness," Rich said. "That looked brutal." He noted that Xavier Worthy looked like he was grabbing his hamstring late in the game, which is the second-to-last thing the Chiefs need, given the attrition at receiver. The last thing they needed was a catastrophic injury to Mahomes. "Bless this man and his healing powers," Rich said. Someone in the studio called him Wolverine. "Half the time you're looking at him," Rich said, "you're like, 'Are you human?'"

One cast member said he had been watching live and immediately thought of the play where Carson Beck got hurt at the end of an SEC Championship Game a couple of years ago, which ended his Georgia career. Another figured that how quickly Mahomes recovered suggested something like a funny bone that went numb. But nobody forgot how it looked. "It was hanging," came the reminder.

Then there was the drive that led to a field goal, when Mahomes scrambled for extra yards and dove right on the arm. Chris wondered why he didn't dive the other way. "He's winning, Chris," Rich said. "That's what he's doing. You're not thinking in the moment."

The road ahead is big. After an earlier bye, the Chiefs face Atlanta, then Arizona at home, then the big one in Buffalo on Thanksgiving night, a game Rich expects to draw north of 50 million viewers. Then the Rams, Cincinnati, New England at home and San Francisco at home. The studio wondered which Chiefs team shows up against New England.

A cast member backed Rich up: "It's better when they're good because he's the best quarterback of his generation." So who are the Chiefs trading for before the deadline? They need a receiver, the room agreed. Whoever it is, Rich said, at least they'll know who's throwing to them.