Who Should I Start? Patrick Mahomes or Taylor Heinicke

Tuesday, June 30, 3:09 PM

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reports that Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (knee) is "trending toward being cleared for 11-on-11 work at the start of training camp." The plan is for the Chiefs to be smart with Mahomes, but he has been present for installs, individual work, and seven-on-seven workouts in spring practices. His arm has looked good, even though his rehab for a torn ACL and LCL limited his throwing work over the last six months. The 30-year-old two-time MVP and six-time Pro Bowler is way ahead of the normal ACL/LCL rehab timeline, so barring a setback this summer, Mahomes is fully on track to be ready to roll for the Week 1 Monday night showdown against the division-rival Denver Broncos. It's all good news for Mahomes' fantasy value going into his 10th year in the NFL, but coming off a major knee surgery in a Chiefs offense that wasn't quite itself in 2025, fantasy managers would be wise to target him as more of a low-end QB1/high-end QB2 in 2026 instead of the high-end QB1 that he was earlier in his career. Mahomes has failed to reach the 4,000-yard mark in each of the last two seasons.