KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Kansas City Chiefs are a hopeful defender, Patrick Mahomes, who is said to have recovered from recent toe surgery to participate in the team’s minicamp in June. The expectation is that he will be ready to leave by the beginning of the camp at the end of the summer.
Mahomes had surgery on the toe of the grass on February 10
“It is a three-month recovery, so we are hopeful [Mahomes returns] somewhere around that mandatory minicamp, if we have it, “said general manager Brett Veach.” We certainly think that with the training camp he will be ready to go and we will be smart with him. “
Veach said the Chiefs were also hopeful of starting Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher’s tackles would be ready for the start of the training camp. Schwartz underwent back surgery last week and Fisher had surgery for a broken Achilles tendon on January 29.
“I would probably say that Pat is ahead of them just because of that type of injury and a faster recovery,” said Veach. “Hopefully, we will have all three ready for the training ground.”
On other matters, Veach said:
• The Chiefs would try to extend defender Tyrann Mathieu’s contract, just as the Chiefs rehired Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and striker Chris Jones last year. Mathieu has one season left of the deal he signed with the Chiefs as a free agent in 2019.
“We would put Tyrann in that category,” said Veach. “We will have a lot of work to do to get with him and his agents, but enough cannot be said about Tyrann and his importance to this team, both on the field and in the locker room. He proved to be not just a great player, but a great leader and a great person to develop young people and the community.
“We hope he will be safe with this organization for years to come.”
• Chiefs would like to retain wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who must be an unrestricted free agent.
“I love Sammy and I love what he does for our offense,” said Veach. “There will be challenges this year. It will be much more challenging to retain it and bring it back this year just because of where we are. We were able to work with him and his agent last year and make it work. This year will probably be more difficult just because we will have some work to do to get below the threshold and, once we do, we will have to see where the markets are going. “
On what the bosses would do if they needed to replace Watkins, Veach said: “We are certainly blessed to have Tyreek Hill and we expect great things from Mecole Hardman this year. We are all excited about the development of Byron Pringle. I feel very good about these three players.
“I can’t see us running out of the gates the first week at a free agency and signing up for a receiver. I don’t think we’re here. If the market goes down and things make sense to us, we will be smart and selective. If something doesn’t work for us in the free agency, I think there is enough depth to allow us to potentially address this in the draft. “