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Adam Teicher, ESPN writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes said his injured ankle “should be in a better place” heading into the Kansas City Chiefs’ Christmas Day game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“We haven’t done much as far as getting out on the practice field,” Mahomes said before Monday’s practice, the most intense of the short work week. “We’ve done one tour, actually two tours.” Now, I feel like I can move and do what I need to do and now we’ll be able to practice a little faster and see where I’m really at. But I thought overall I came out pretty well.
“Obviously the body is going to be sore with a short week and everything, but I think the ankle should be in a better place. We’ll see in practice.” [Monday]but as far as how I felt after this match compared to the last one, I’m definitely in a much better place.”
Six days after suffering a sprained ankle against the Cleveland Browns, Mahomes completed 28 of 41 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s 27-19 victory over the Houston Texans. He also rushed for 33 yards and scored the game’s first touchdown on a 15-yard run.
Mahomes said he was excited when the schedule was released last spring to learn the Chiefs had a second straight game on Christmas Day, “until I realized it was Wednesday.”
He said the Chiefs were eager to put on a better show on Christmas than last season, when they suffered “a pretty embarrassing loss” to the Las Vegas Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium.
“He pushed us to win the Super Bowl, so it ended up working out, but you want to make sure you go out there and put on a better performance for everyone to see,” Mahomes said.
“It’s really cool to play the first Netflix game, to play it on Christmas Day in front of the whole nation. It’s an honor, so we’ll go out there trying to do what we can to not have the same experience we had last Christmas.”
By beating the Steelers, the Chiefs would clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, which comes with a first-round bye and home-field advantage for any games they play before Super Bowl LIX.
“You want to get that first seed to get that break, so you’re basically winning a playoff game by getting the first seed,” Mahomes said. “If you do that, you’ll have the home field advantage at Arrowhead as well, which we think is a big advantage for us.
“You can’t put all your attention on that. All you can do is go out and play football and know that we’re going to play against a great team and it’s going to take our best football to win.”
