What injury? Patrick Mahomes shows ankle is just fine with rushing touchdown

Patrick Mahomes sent a scare throughout the entirety of the Kansas City Chiefs fanbase less than a week ago. The all-world quarterback hopped up hobbled late in the team's win over the Cleveland Browns in Week 15. He appeared to be in bad shape postgame as well before officially being diagnosed with a mild ankle sprain.

Even still, the injury put his status for the team's Saturday matchup against the Houston Texans into question, especially on the short week. Surprisingly, though, Mahomes was taken off the injury report early in the week and left no doubt he was ready to suit up in Week 16.

Almost immediately, we found out why he and the Chiefs were comfortable with that.

In the first quarter against Houston, Mahomes had Kansas City driving with the ball on the Texans 15-yard line. Rather than look elsewhere, he took it upon himself when he saw a lane and easily scampered the remaining distance into the end zone, even taking a pretty good shot as he crossed the goal-line for the early score. More importantly, the ankle didn't look to be hindering him at all.

That's probably why you want Mahomes in the game instead of Carson Wentz.

Patrick Mahomes shows no sign of ankle injury with early TD run

To be sure, there was a moment on Mahomes' other rushing attempt on that drive when he took a low hit while going out of bounds. He stayed down for a beat longer than he normally would while clutching the ankle. But he popped up and the touchdown run happened just a few plays thereafter.

Outside of Mahomes' injury, though, the other injury news that dominated Chiefs headlines throughout the week leading up to Saturday was the return of wide receiver Hollywood Brown from IR. He made his debut against Houston after signing this offseason and also came up with a big play on the scoring drive.

Kansas City was up against a fourth-and-1 situation at the Houston 29-yard line and elected to go for it and make an early statement. Mahomes found Brown in the middle of the field and the speedy former first-round pick was able to turn on the jets for a 12-yard gain, more than enough for the first down.

While the health of the Chiefs quarterback is obviously something to monitor moving forward as the Chiefs' potential Super Bowl three-peat won't happen without him, there are signs that the arrow is still pointing up for Kansas City down the stretch. The return of Brown could unlock quite a bit for Mahomes and the offense, which is scary proposition given how narratively of a problem that side of the ball has been this season amid an array of injuries.