Things just took a very dark turn for the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7. With 10 minutes to play in the second quarter, quarterback Patrick Mahomes went down and stayed down after apparently getting his knee rolled up on during a called quarterback sneak. The Chiefs sent the cart out for the reigning NFL MVP, but he waved it off and instead walked to the sideline with the assistance of trainers -- also displaying a noticeable limp. Shortly after, the Chiefs announced that Mahomes is out with a knee injury.
Preliminary reports are that Mahomes may have escaped the worst-case scenario, but more tests will be run to confirm. His injury appears to be a dislocated kneecap -- medically referred to as a dislocated patella -- with no initial thought of ligament damage, per Terez Paylor of Yahoo! Sports.
Hearing early indications are that Patrick Mahomes has a dislocated knee but at the moment it looks like it isn’t fractured, per a source. MRI coming tomorrow when we’ll know more, but it’s a positive early sign.
— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) October 18, 2019
A team looking to end a two-game slide at the expense of the Denver Broncos on "Thursday Night Football" got off to a hot start in all three phases of the game, which included Mahomes throwing for 76 yards and a touchdown on 10-for-12 passing to put the Chiefs up 13-6. On the next possession, the Chiefs forced a fumble and returned it for a touchdown to increase their lead to 13 points. They are going to need it. With Mahomes out, the Chiefs have turned to veteran journeyman Matt Moore at quarterback.
Per Sportsline Data Scientist Stephen Oh, if Mahomes is lost for the season, the Chiefs would have 2.3 fewer wins then if Mahomes was healthy. Mahomes not playing lowers the Chiefs per game win percentage by 25% and they go to just a 0.3% chance of winning the Super Bowl even in a weak AFC.
The percentage of the Chiefs' playoff hopes, even with Thursday's game factored into the equation are astounding.
KANSAS CITY | WIN | WIN % | DIVISION | PLAYOFF | CONF | SUPER BOWL |
with Mahomes | 10.0 | 62.5% | 75.3% | 81.4% | 13.5% | 7.0% |
without Mahomes | 7.7 | 48.1% | 27.3% | 31.7% | 1.1% | 0.7% |
IMPACT | -2.3 | -14.4% | -14.0% | -49.7% | -12.4% | -6.3% |
Matt Moore entered the game as the Chiefs quarterback, his first significant NFL action since making a start in Week 12 of the 2017 season (threw a pass late in the fourth quarter of a Week 1 game for the Chiefs). Moore was out of football in 2018 and signed in August after No. 2 quarterback Chad Henne was lost for the season with an ankle injury. Kyle Shurmur is the other quarterback on the Chiefs roster, but he's currently on the practice squad.
For the Chiefs to replace Mahomes, that's near impossible. The 2018 NFL MVP was on a similar pace in 2019, completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 2,104 yards with 13 touchdowns and one interceptions for a 111.9 passer rating entering the game. Mahomes led the NFL in passing yards, yards gained per attempt, yards gained per completion, net yards gained per attempt and adjusted yards gained per attempt.
Follow all the up-to-the-minute action and highlights from the Chiefs versus Broncos in our CBS Sports live stream.
