Reid: Mahomes will play in AFC C’ship
LOS ANGELES: Patrick Mahomes first said it. Now Kansas City head coach Andy Reid confirmed it — the Chiefs’ quarterback will play in the AFC Championship Game against Cincinnati on Sunday.
Reid told reporters pm Monday that Mahomes is “doing OK” after sustaining a high-ankle sprain in Saturday’s divisional play-off victory over Jacksonville.
Mahomes declared himself fit to play hours after the injury on Saturday, saying: “I’ll be good to go.”
“Obviously, I have a lot of adrenaline going right now, so we’ll see how it feels,” Mahomes said then.
“But I’ll hop right in the treatment and try to do whatever I can to be as close to 100 percent by next week.
Luckily for us, we played the early game on Saturday, so we get an extra almost half a day that I can let that ankle rest.”
Mahomes was hurt late in the first quarter when he was tackled by Jacksonville’s Arden Key and Corey Peters. Key fell on Mahomes’ right lower leg as Mahomes fell awkwardly to the ground.
The Chiefs and Bengals meet on Sunday, with the winners advancing to the Super Bowl.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers’ top two running backs, Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell, were dealing with injuries heading into Sunday’s NFC Championship game at the Philadelphia Eagles.
McCaffrey aggravated a calf injury during Sunday’s 19-12 divisional round play-off win over the Dallas Cowboys while Mitchell sustained a groin injury.
San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan on Monday termed both running backs as day-to-day during a conference call with reporters.
“We’re expecting to get them all back for Sunday,” said Shanahan, “but we’ll see how it goes through the week with practice and everything. Hopefully it’ll go well and that’ll get them ready for Sunday.”
In another development, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen said he doesn’t expect to have off-season surgery on his right elbow. He told reporters on Monday that team doctors are hopeful that rest and recovery will be enough.
Allen’s season ended on Sunday with a 27-10 home loss to the Bengals in an AFC divisional play-off game.
He originally injured his throwing elbow in a Week 9 loss to the New York Jets and was a regular on the injury list for the remainder of the season, although he never missed a start.
Allen completed 25 of 42 passes for 265 yards with no touchdowns and one interception against the Bengals.
He was 13-3 in the regular season, passing for 4,283 yards with 35 touchdowns and 14 interceptions as the Bills earned the AFC’s No.2 seed.
Allen, 26, has thrown for 18,397 yards with 138 TDs and 60 picks in 77 games (76 starts) since Buffalo drafted him with the seventh overall pick in 2018.