EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsKANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Even after a disappointing 6-11 in 2025, the Kansas City Chiefs are still very much one of the NFL darlings, especially when it comes to the 2026 schedule.Despite missing the playoffs, and with quarterback Patrick Mahomes rehabbing from a serious left knee injury and tight end Travis Kelce potentially near the end of his illustrious career, the Chiefs were still given plenty of spotlight games for the fall. Or you could say all those storylines are exactly why on Thursday, the league, in its full reveal of the schedule, wanted the Chiefs to be on the marquee for six primetime or stand-alone games.The league -- and its several TV partners -- appear to be betting that Mahomes, who tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee Dec. 14, will be on the field for opening night, which will be a "Monday Night Football" home game Sept. 14 against the Denver Broncos -- and for the duration of the season. The Chiefs, too, are optimistic that Mahomes will be in uniform that night."I don't want to speak for Rick Burkholder, our [head] trainer, and I'm not a doctor, but it has been just an awesome experience to see exactly how Pat Mahomes has attacked this rehab process," Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said earlier this month on the "Pat McAfee Show." Veach added: "He is in this building [from] 7 [a.m.] to 3 or 4 [p.m.] every single day. If he goes to Texas for a few days, he takes one of our assistant trainers with him."Because of that hard work, I think he's pretty far ahead of schedule. He's such a motivating presence and an example to the building on how to approach every day like a true professional. I'm excited for him to get back out there."Much of the Chiefs' first game is about both quarterbacks. Bo Nix, the Broncos' starter, is also rehabbing after sustaining a broken bone in his right ankle on Jan. 18, during Denver's AFC divisional round win over the Buffalo Bills.The Chiefs were given the same treatment as the 2009 New England Patriots. The leading storyline in the run-up to that season was about quarterback Tom Brady's expected return from his own torn left ACL injury. With Brady back on the field, the Patriots opened the 2009 season at home on "Monday Night Football" against the Bills, a game they won. The Chiefs would be thrilled with a similar outcome.If Mahomes does indeed start, his recovery from the most significant injury in his nine-year career would be just nine months."I'm excited about Kansas City," Kirk Herbstreit, the color commentator for Amazon's Prime Video, said Tuesday on the "Pat McAfee Show." Herbstreit added: "It's almost as if people have maybe felt that's the end, because of the injury to Mahomes, because of some of the losses that they have had."Is it time for Kansas City's story to be over? I don't think it is. Any time you question Patrick Mahomes, he's going to come out swinging."Mahomes is expected to participate alongside his teammates when the Chiefs hold their first three OTAs on May 26-28, according to sources with knowledge of his recovery process. If he doesn't experience a setback, Mahomes should be on track to be available when the Chiefs have training camp in August."I expect them to come back and be the team we've seen for much of the last decade," Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said in Tuesday's episode of "Get Up." Aikman later added: "To kick that off Week 1, a divisional game, I always liked that as a player. It kind of helps set the tone in what is a very competitive division."For Week 2, the Chiefs will host the Indianapolis Colts, a game that will be played in Arrowhead Stadium for "Sunday Night Football." With consecutive standalone games, this will be the first time in the Chiefs' history that they will start the season with two primetime home games inside Arrowhead.Their next stand-alone game is in Seattle in Week 7, when running back Kenneth Walker III, the reigning Super Bowl MVP, returns to Lumen Field to face the Seahawks, his former team.With an early bye, in Week 5, the Chiefs could be in plenty of games that have implications on the playoff picture. One of the most compelling stretches of the Chiefs' schedule begins Thanksgiving, when they travel to face the Bills, one of their biggest AFC rivals, in primetime. The next two games are also on the road, against the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals."This is a soft schedule up until about Thanksgiving, and I think that's great for Kansas City," Dan Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, said Thursday night on "SportsCenter's" NFL schedule release show. Orlovsky later added: "If you look at those first 10 games or so, I think this is a perfect schedule for when it comes to where the Chiefs are to softly start the season and get Patrick back to what Patrick is -- and then hit that hard stretch at the end of the year."However, the NFL didn't give the Chiefs everything they wanted. Club owner Clark Hunt was hoping the league would select the Chiefs as the Atlanta Falcons' opponent for the international game in Madrid on Nov. 8. Instead, the Chiefs will not play an international game, which they had done two of the previous three seasons.The league also didn't select the Chiefs for one of its Christmas games. Over the past three years, the franchise has wanted to play on the holiday as a new tradition for the league, one that is similar to the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions playing on Thanksgiving. The Chiefs had played on Christmas the previous three years. This season, the Chiefs will host the San Francisco 49ers two days after."Our track record from a rating standpoint would lead to confidence that we're going to have a lot of primetime games," Chiefs team president Mark Donovan said in March at the owners' meetings. "The league does a great job with us on, 'Here's what we're thinking, do you have any conflicts?' When we started playing on Christmas, we wanted to play every Christmas, and the league said, 'We're not going to do that again.' We've played on every single Christmas [since]."We respect that the league wants to spread it around. We get it."
