Patrick Mahomes and Zach Ertz had same surgery — then became each other’s motivator

Less than 24 hours before his own knee surgery, tight end Zach Ertz picked up his phone to text Patrick Mahomes.

While watching football on television, Ertz had just seen the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback suffer a non-contact injury — and as someone who had gone through ACL recovery before, he knew what was coming next.

“It’s a lonely road ahead,” Ertz wrote to Mahomes, “but I’m here for you.”

Little did Ertz know at the time: Mahomes was about to be there for him as well.

Ertz and Mahomes — who previously knew each other from NFL offseason events — turned into critical support systems for each other this offseason, as both worked to push the limits of rehab after they went through ACL and LCL repair surgery on Dec. 15.

“It was good to have someone to just be like, ‘OK, where I’m at is right where I need to be.’ And we’re being aggressive, but we’re being smart,” Ertz told The Athletic last week. “So it was good to have someone that was constantly going through the same struggles that I was.”

Ertz, 35, injured himself a week before Mahomes last season while playing for the Washington Commanders. He immediately became emotional on the field, wondering whether that would mark the end of his playing career.

After he decided on surgery — and to pursue a comeback this year — Ertz said Mahomes helped him through the darkest days.

The two trained in different locations but motivated each other through text messages. It started with one of the most trying parts of rehab: the first month, which Ertz describes as “literally laying on a table and just cranking at your knee, trying to get the range of motion back.”

Back-and-forth texts with Mahomes kept his spirits up. How is your rehab going? How are you grinding through it? What did you work on today?

“It’s really just supporting one another,” Ertz said. “Truly happy for the other person’s progress because when you’re rehabbing, no one’s really there.”

Mahomes shared a similar sentiment at the start of this year’s training camp, saying his contact with Ertz was especially helpful through a “long process.”

“You feel like sometimes you’re lonely, because you’re doing stuff by yourself and you’re just competing against yourself,” Mahomes said. “So it gave me someone else I can compete with to push my competitive drive.”

Zach Ertz, then with the Commanders, was emotional when he suffered his latest knee injury in December. During rehab, he found a kindred spirit in Kansas City. (Ellen Schmidt / Getty Images)

Ertz says knee recovery is especially trying because progress can be non-linear — and improvement isn’t always instantaneous.

Football players are used to immediate feedback loops. Bench press one amount today and you can expect to do a little more tomorrow, then even more next week.

The knee rehab Ertz and Mahomes went through was completely different. You could be stuck at one weight on a leg exercise for a week because of a limited range of motion. And literally nothing you do — at least for a while — can even get you to a place where you can lift one pound more than you did previously.

“It’s tough not seeing those immediate results,” Ertz said. “And I think that is probably the toughest part, mentally just grinding through those difficult days where it’s not getting tangibly better objectively.”

Gains come over time, though, and Ertz said Mahomes was particularly helpful as the two were trending back in a similar way.

Ertz, for example, said he was hesitant at one point to attempt crossover steps as part of his rehab. Shortly after, though, he saw a video of Mahomes executing those types of steps while dropping back to pass.

“I think he just encouraged me,” Ertz said, “how aggressive he was.”

Ertz was a resource for Mahomes, too. There was a certain point, he said, when Mahomes shared that he was struggling to push off his big toe when running. Ertz had gone through that same issue, so he gave Mahomes an exercise to use and texted over a video that had worked for him.

It’s all led to this point for Mahomes and Ertz, who have exceeded expectations in their respective returns.

Mahomes was cleared to be a full participant for training camp practices in late July — barely more than seven months removed from surgery.

Ertz said he texted Mahomes that day: “Bro, you’re killing it.”

“It’s not surprising why he’s so great,” Ertz said. “He attacks everything.”

A similar mentality helped lift Ertz to the verge of his own NFL comeback, too.

Ertz, whose Dec. 15 surgery was in Houston, was fully cleared by Dr. Walter Lowe to participate in football activities last month. Since then, he participated in a workout on Stanford’s campus with former Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and trains every day while weighing his NFL options.

The numbers suggest he’s ready to go again. Ertz says his GPS tracking shows his top speed is 99 percent of what it was before surgery last season, and after an offseason of strength training, his force-plate jumps show better force than before he was hurt.

“I still feel like I can make a difference in the league as a player,” said Ertz, who would be entering his 14th pro season. “And so for me, it’s just trying to figure out which situation is the best for me and my family, and determining when that is.”

Ertz said it’s now about waiting for the right opportunity. Things can change quickly with teams during training camp, so for now, he’s in a routine of spending six hours a day with route work, physical therapy and weightlifting to ensure he’s ready to step in when needed.

“I have a lot of objective data that is telling me that I’m in a great spot,” Ertz said. “So obviously I need to go out there and prove it and earn whatever role that I’m able to. And I don’t need to be promised anything — just an opportunity to compete, whenever that is. But for me, I feel this knee is not going to change the way I play the game.”

Perhaps Ertz’s best argument that he’s back to himself at this point? It could be NFL teams seeing practice highlights of Mahomes after going through a similar return-to-play process.

Ertz said he was wowed by Mahomes starting in May’s organized team activities, when the Chiefs QB did throwing drills and did some limited cutting while practicing with teammates. Recent Chiefs camp videos show that Mahomes has progressed since then.

“It’s remarkable to be able to be where he’s at at this point, with what doesn’t look like any limitations,” Ertz said. “He’s wearing the brace, obviously. I texted him. I said, ‘I wouldn’t know that you were hurt. The brace is the only thing that tells me that you had surgery.’ Other than that, it looks the same as he always does to me.”

Though Ertz has never had Mahomes as a teammate, he said he’d be watching him closely this season while knowing all he’s gone through to get back to this point.

“He’s constantly pushing the boundaries with his body, with his play, and it’s not a surprise why he’s one of the best players to ever play in the National Football League, just because of how he approaches adversity, how he approaches success,” Ertz said. “So I think that was something that I knew about him, but it was different, going through the same struggles.”