KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Whether he was in shock or denial or simply thought he could summon his indomitable will to the cause, Patrick Mahomes’ first instinct after he was helped up and off the Arrowhead Stadium field with a horrendous knee injury last December was to lobby to get back in the game.

Even as it was being made clear hours later that he would require surgery and a long rehabilitation process, he essentially expressed the same uncanny sense of urgency.

That’s the superpower that will enable Mahomes to start on Monday night when the Chiefs open their 2026 season by playing host to the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium.

“He was calculating it pretty early,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said with a smile on Thursday.

That calculation began inside the room where Mahomes was undergoing the MRI that would reveal he had torn his anterior crucial ligament (ACL) and lateral collateral ligament (LCL). Reid recalled that, even then, Mahomes was declaring the comeback ahead.

“There was no hesitation,” Reid said.

Clearly having relished his chance “to see it and hear it” as Mahomes in real-time proclaimed what was to come, Reid reiterated the rare quality that helps separate Mahomes from most mortals.

“I don’t doubt,” the coach said, “anything he puts his mind to.”

That’s what enabled Mahomes to be on his way to Dallas for surgery the next morning, start rehabbing the day after that and navigate everything from pain to the mundane on his way back — as my colleague Sam McDowell explored in-depth last week.

Awe-inspiring as the nine-month turnaround has been — in part because it served as a reminder that Mahomes isn’t an automaton — the next phase is something else altogether, even for the two-time NFL MVP and three-time Super Bowl MVP.

While Mahomes not only was a full participant in training camp and got stronger and more confident in his knee along the way, he didn’t see so much as a snap in the Chiefs’ three preseason games.

Meanwhile, the bubble wrap will be coming off against a marauding Denver defense.

Although Mahomes has been cleared physically — and Reid says Mahomes has shown there’s no reason to hold anything back from what the Chiefs normally would run — there’s an X-factor that can’t be known until he is in the fray.

How will the knee, not to mention to some degree Mahomes himself, respond under duress in the game?

No doubt Mahomes sees one particular key to the answer.

At least eight times during his roughly 10-minute interview session on Thursday, he made reference to some form of the term … being himself.

Asked if he had a mental checklist to work though, for instance, Mahomes said, “Not necessarily. I think it’s going to be hard for me not to just be myself once I step on the field.”

Referencing his play during camp, he added, “The moment stuff started happening, I just became a competitor.”

To a follow-up question about whether there will be a challenge to respecting that he’s coming off knee surgery while also trying to ignore it, he said, “A little bit. (But) I think you’ve got to go out there and be yourself. I’ve built up the strength, I’ve built up all the days of rehab, so that I can be myself.”

As ever, he added, he’ll seek to keep out of harm’s way and avoid big hits. Pondering a play the other day when he turned as if to block, he suggested that most likely he’d even “try not to lay any blocks.”

“Hopefully,” he said. “Unless it’s needed.”

It’s telling, though, that this is what Mahomes said when he first was asked about any inclination to block: “That’s what makes me who I am.”

That’s entirely true, and it speaks so much to what makes him exceptional and admired by teammates and fans.

It’s what made him try to go back in that game. And what helped him through the days when he was sore and maybe a little sour but had great support and never lost sight of what he was so resolute about.

Even when he was frustrated or sluggish, he said, he was always certain of the destination and the date.

So much so that when he was asked if he had days he questioned whether he’d be back for this opener, he more or less shrugged and said, “Never those days.”

As for the days ahead, there’s an obvious parallel here about Mahomes recuperating as the Chiefs set out to recover from a 6-11 showing that ended their stunning run of five Super Bowl berths in six seasons.

In separately describing what he learned from his rehab and from last season, Mahomes used a number of terms that could be applied interchangeably.

When it came to the injury, for instance, he said “you have to get past that (and) you have to move on, just like anything else in life. You have to push forward and learn from it and get better from it.”

As for what he learned from last season, Mahomes talked about all the sorts of little things — and mistakes the Chiefs made that they hadn’t in the past. They have to … push forward, he added, “and kind of learn how to win again.”

Just as he’s learning how to be the new best version of himself ASAP.

That’s a lot to take on. And uncharted territory, even for him. And I’ll be among those gritting their teeth when he gets hit the first time.

Then again, Reid sure had it right until proven otherwise: It’s hard to doubt anything Mahomes puts his mind to as the Chiefs enter what they hope will be a redemptive season.

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