Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons-two of the NFL’s brightest stars-both saw their seasons come to a brutal halt on Sunday, and the ripple effects are already being felt across the league. Mahomes, the heart of the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense, tore his ACL in a tight 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Minutes later, the Chiefs were officially eliminated from playoff contention. Hours after that, Green Bay’s defensive anchor Micah Parsons suffered the same injury during the Packers’ Week 15 loss to the Denver Broncos.
Just like that, two of the league’s most dynamic playmakers are sidelined with long-term injuries-and the conversation has already shifted to what comes next.
Former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III weighed in with a strong opinion during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show. Griffin, who knows firsthand how a major knee injury can derail a promising career, urged both Mahomes and Parsons to sit out the entire 2026 season-not just rehab, but fully redshirt the year to prioritize long-term health.
“The No. 1 advice I’d give to Micah Parsons and Patrick Mahomes right now is to not play next year,” Griffin said. “It’s because of when they got hurt.
They both got hurt in December. We’ve seen guys come back in six months, eight months, nine months.
But you don’t really feel like yourself until about 15 months after the injury. Some guys say it took them 24 months.”
Griffin isn’t speaking in hypotheticals here. He lived it.
After tearing both his ACL and LCL-the same injury Mahomes is now facing-Griffin rushed back to play the following season. In hindsight, he says, it was a mistake.
“I wouldn’t have played in 2013… because I wasn’t back to myself yet,” he admitted. “These guys aren’t me, but I’d advise them to not play next year so that when they come back in ’27, they can truly and fully be themselves.
It won’t knock off years from their careers.”
That’s a sobering thought, especially when you consider what Mahomes and Parsons mean to their respective franchises. Mahomes is the Chiefs.
He’s the engine, the identity, and the reason Kansas City has been a perennial Super Bowl contender. Without him, the Chiefs not only lost the game-they lost the heartbeat of their offense.
And with the playoff elimination now official, the conversation shifts from “Can they make a run?” to “How do they regroup for 2026 and beyond?”
As for Parsons, he was putting together another monster season-12.5 sacks through 14 games and on the cusp of setting a new personal best. His presence on the Packers’ defense wasn’t just important, it was transformative.
Green Bay had a legitimate case as the team to beat in the NFC, and Parsons was the centerpiece of that argument. Without him, the Packers’ ceiling drops significantly-and so do their odds of making a deep postseason run.
There’s also the broader impact on the playoff landscape. If Mahomes doesn’t go down, maybe the Chiefs pull out the win against the Chargers and keep their postseason hopes alive.
That loss didn’t just end their season-it gave a jolt to the AFC playoff picture. And with Kansas City now out of the mix, Week 17’s matchup against the AFC-leading Denver Broncos suddenly looks a lot less threatening for Denver.
In Green Bay, the absence of Parsons could be just as damaging. The Packers were in the thick of the NFC race, but without their defensive MVP, they might not even be the best team in their own division anymore. That’s how much he meant to their identity on that side of the ball.
Injuries are always part of the game, but when they hit stars like Mahomes and Parsons-players who define their teams and shape the league’s competitive balance-the fallout is massive. Whether either player ultimately takes Griffin’s advice and sits out 2026 remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: these injuries didn’t just change the course of this season-they might reshape the next one, too.