QB Patrick Mahomes Throwing Hand “Doing Better” as Chiefs Prepare for Broncos

Mahomes says the bruising, swelling in his right hand settled down, allowing him to throw the ball comfortable in Wednesday's practice

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Patrick Mahomes said Wednesday he felt comfortable throwing and could grip the football normally after bruising his passing hand in Sunday's 23-16 win over New England.

“It's doing better,” Mahomes said. “A lot of the swelling has went out in these last two days, so I was able to throw the football around today and I'm excited to go out and practice and be able to spin it around there.”

Mahomes had difficulty gripping the ball after injuring the hand. the Chiefs altered their game plan accordingly, relying on the shallow passing game in the second half against the Patriots. 

“Definitely a little scary after the game when it was a little bit bruised and the swelling and stuff like that,” Mahomes said. “As we've done more and more treatment, the swelling has went away, so I was able to throw the football and everything.”

The club's training staff used ice and hand exercises to help reduce the swelling in his right hand. He threw the ball on Tuesday, but noticed a significant improvement during Wednesday morning's walk thru workout. He felt comfortable throwing and take snaps under center, feeling ready for a normal work load in Wednesday afternoon's practice. 

“Today was probably the first day I was able to really get a grip on it,” Mahomes said. “I was able to kind to flick it around yesterday, but today was probably the first day where I was able to really grip the ball and throw it and could actually drive the ball a little bit down field.”

Mahomes has dealt with a string of injuries this season, suffering a sprained left ankle in Week 1 at Jacksonville and a dislocated kneecap in Week 7 at Denver. That's meant steady visits to the training room throughout the season.

“I'm just trying to take care of my body in general and just making it sure I'm as healthy as I can be every single week,” Mahomes said. “The training staff does a great job with that. We'll make sure we still rehab everything and make sure I'm ready to go.”

Despite Kansas City's three-game winning streak, the club's normally high-octane offense hasn't had its engine purring. Mahomes has completed just under 60 percent of his passes with only three touchdowns and two interceptions in that stretch for a passer rating of 79.6. He's average 213.3 yards passing per game after averaging 328.3 yards through his first eight games of the season.

Mahomes doesn't blame the injuries, but rather concedes he has a history of drifting more in the pocket as the season progresses rather than stepping up into throws.

“I kind of sometimes rely on my arm and rely on these back foot throws,” Mahomes said. “Those are all cool and everything like that, but you want to make sure that you're still doing the fundamentals because whenever you get to the end of the season, you're going to have to step up and make these big-time throws and I want to make sure that my fundamentals are in the right way.”