KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Monday, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid still wasn’t ready to confirm Patrick Mahomes’ Week 1 status.

To this point, the Chiefs have held Mahomes back from any preseason action as he continues his rehab and recovery from the torn ACL and LCL he suffered eight and a half months ago.

Mahomes has never missed an entire preseason, so he’s had to find ways to mimic the annual dress rehearsal as if it were business as usual.

“It’s just preparing just like a game week every single week,” Mahomes said Tuesday. “This week, we’ve treated this more like a game week. And so being able to go in that same process, having a ‘Wednesday’ (style) practice (on Monday) and then a ‘Thursday’ practice (Tuesday), and take my notes the same, watch the same film that I’ll usually watch — I think that’s kind of how I prepare. And get out there on the practice field and treat every rep like it’s the most important rep. I think if you can do that, you’ll be ready to go whenever you get that opportunity to go out there in the game.”

At Monday’s practice, Mahomes ran the scout team, an indication that he will sit out the team’s final preseason game Friday night against the Seattle Seahawks.

Reid said the team’s athletic training staff continues to gauge his progress “day by day,” and a positive sign is that since camp began in late July, he hasn’t missed a single practice or rep.

“Getting to go out there day after day and have the grind of camp — that could even be harder than the season,” Mahomes said. “Just wear and tear on your body and going back out there and doing it again the next day. And so it’s been awesome for me to be able to go out there and do that. I’m excited. I didn’t know if I was going to have to take days off and stuff like that, but my body’s responded the right way.

“And so I haven’t had to miss anything other than the preseason games. But even for those, I’m going through the warmup process, trying to make myself prepared, and so I just don’t get the one series or whatever it would be. But other than that, I’ve done every single rep.”

In addition to taking all the practice reps asked of him, the quarterback said he’s continued rehab before and after the workouts. He said he’s consciously tried not to make some of the hard cuts he’s displayed on scrambles in the past, but sometimes during the past month’s 11-on-11 sessions, it’s happened naturally.

At times, the competitiveness has actually gotten the best of him, and those in charge need to pull back the reins.

“After, it’s like the coaches come up to me, like, ‘Hey, let’s calm down a little bit,’ ” Mahomes said. “It’s just being a competitor. I want to go out there and win. I want to go out there and give everything I have for the team.

“And so I haven’t had any hesitancy throughout the plays. It’s the coaches talking to me after and telling me, ‘We’re just practicing. It’s not a real live game.’ And so other than that, we’ve been good.”

Forty-eight hours before training camp began, Mahomes had to travel to Dallas to complete a final test with his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Dan Cooper, to receive clearance to participate in training camp.

During training camp, all quarterbacks wear yellow non-contact jerseys, so it’s a bit different from standing as a target for an opposing defense in a regular-season game situation.

Mahomes said he isn’t sure if Cooper will require another test before he’s cleared to take the field for Week 1 against the Denver Broncos on “Monday Night Football.”

“Honestly, I don’t know the exact answer,” he said. “I know that when we talk to the doc a lot and just tell him how I’m feeling. He trusts (assistant athletic trainer) Julie (Frymeyer) a ton with her examining me day to day, stuff like that. But I think as long as I can continue to go out there and feel good and trust my body and be able to go out there and be myself, I think I’m going to be good to go. But that’s probably a better question for (vice president of sports medicine and performance) Rick (Burkholder) to answer.”

In past seasons, Mahomes has said he prefers to take a hit during the preseason, which is becoming more unlikely by the day. But while that might not happen because of the special circumstances that have come with 2026, he doesn’t sound all that worried about it.

“I don’t really have it in my mind,” Mahomes said. “I always say that because it locks you in. When you get that first hit, it almost locks you into like, ‘All right, we’re playing football again,’ everything like that. But I feel like the last few preseasons, we’ve been so good blocking throughout these drives that I haven’t taken that hit. And so it’ll be kind of that same type of experience.

“But at the end of the day, when we’re going into that Week 1, if I’m able to get through this process and be able to play that, we’ll be going up against one of the best defenses in the league. And so I’ll have to be ready to go no matter what it is.”

©2026 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.