Chiefs optimistic about Patrick Mahomes hand injury despite further tests

The Kansas City Chiefs remain cautiously optimistic about any diagnosis of a potential injury to Patrick Mahomes throwing hand.

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs were mostly in a celebratory mood. The team had clinched their fourth straight division title—a franchise best—in the AFC West. They’d also defeated the reigning Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots, on the road for a big conference win. Yet the lingering concern after the game was a roster and coaching staff hoping that quarterback Patrick Mahomes hand injury wouldn’t turn into a major concern.

Early in the win over the Patriots, Mahomes fell on the ground and seemed to awkwardly land on his hand. From there, it was obvious that his hand was bothering him and the Chiefs quarterback and reigning MVP could be seen attending to it or massaging it in some way after most passing attempts.

After the game, it was made known that the team was going to get x-rays on Mahomes’ hand, but it sounds like those aren’t the only tests scheduled for their star. Ian Rapoport appeared on Good Morning, Football on the NFL Network with an update that keeps things as tenuous as they first felt in Foxborough when Mahomes was visibly bothered in the first place.

“He actually got x-rays after the game,” said Rapoport of Mahomes. “It sounded like those were negative, but he’s going to have more tests today just to make sure there’s no singificant damage on that hand … this is something where there is optimism that he’s going to be able to play next week, that is what the Cheifs think right now, but no one is absolutely sure until they get the results of these tests today.”

The cautious optimism is all fans can have, too, as they hope for Mahomes to get better. The Chiefs have slight reason to believe they can earn a first-round bye if the right things happen to both the Ravens and Patriots down the stretch. However, it might be more important to focus on resting Mahomes for the postseason.

The Chiefs next game comes against the Denver Broncos, who look a lot more impressive with Drew Lock under center than Joe Flacco. The Chiefs have nothing to lose in terms of a playoff spot, since that’s already locked, and the AFC West is under wraps once again. The Broncos are out and can’t even play the role of spoiler here. However the team is building momentum for offseason hope and giving Lock plenty of great experience.

Should the Chiefs pull up the stakes and play it safe? Should they push Mahomes to start despite the lingering hand injury in hopes that other teams will falter and allow them to step into the 2nd overall seed? It’s a tough call at this point, but it starts with hearing how Mahomes is feeling and what these tests say.