Who will play for the Chiefs if Patrick Mahomes is out vs Texans? Chiefs quarterback may have suffered high-ankle sprain

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes gave everyone quite the scare when he left their game against the Cleveland Browns with an ankle injury. In the fourth quarter, Mahomes was attempting a fourth-down conversion when he was dragged down from behind by Browns defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson and hit high by DT Mike Hall.

“I was trying to run up in the pocket, obviously fourth down, trying to make a play happen,” Mahomes said. “And as I threw the ball, I kind of got hit - and I haven’t seen it - but it felt like someone hit me from behind as well. And so I kind of just got rolled up on. It kind of happens in football, and so I tried to bounce back up, but obviously, it hurt a little bit. But now we’ll just get after the rehab part of it and try to be ready for next week."

Mahomes exited the game and the Chiefs put in backup Carson Wentz in to replace him, although head coach Andy Reid said they were just playing it safe and that Mahomes could have stayed in if he wanted.

“He wanted to fight about it, but we’ve got a good support there behind him with Carson and it was good to get him a few reps in there too and let our guys hear that snap count in case he has to go," Reid said.

Before leaving the game, Mahomes completed 19 of 38 passes for 159 yards and two touchdowns with 21 pressure from the Browns defense.

Who is Patrick Mahomes' backup, Carson Wentz?

At this point, it’s still not clear whether or not Mahomes will have to miss next week’s game against the Houston Texans due to his ankle injury. It’s a short week as the Chiefs play on Saturday this week. Reid said the ankle is not broken, which is good news, but Mahomes will start rehab this week and go from there.

It’s been reported that Mahomes may have a high-ankle sprain and he is now considered week-to-week.

“You just do what you have to do to get back, and I think that’s the most important thing,” said Mahomes after the game. “And now we just get back to the rehab part, the treatment part, and try to get ourselves ready on a short week against a good football team.”

“I thought the defense was playing really well, and I wanted to go back out there, and I probably would’ve fought a little bit harder if they would’ve got the game to one score [margin],” said Mahomes. “But I have a lot of trust in Carson, too... We put him out there and I thought he did a great job moving the football, running time off the clock and putting us in a position to win the football game.”

Wentz would be the one to fill in for Mahomes on Saturday if he is in fact unable to play against the Texans. And as far as backups go, Wentz is a pretty great one to have in the lineup.

Wentz was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016, second overall, out of North Dakota State Bison, where he won two consecutive NCAA FCSS national championships. The following year, he had a spectacular season, helping lead the Eagles to the top of the NFC, despite suffering a season-ending injury. Wentz was a big reason the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl that year although he wasn’t able to play in it - Nick Foles was under center for the Super Bowl LII victory over the New England Patriots.

He went on to lead the Eagles to the playoffs in his next two seasons, but unfortunately, injuries marred the rest of his career after that. He spent his next three seasons, from 2021-23, as both a starter and backup for the Indianapolis Colts, Washington Commanders, and Los Angeles Rams.

The Chiefs brought Wentz on at the start of this 2024 season. In his career, Wentz has a 62.7% completion rate, 22,312 passing yards, 153 touchdowns, and 67 interceptions.

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