A month ago, Patrick Mahomes proclaimed himself ahead of schedule in his recovery from a turf toe injury. The superstar quarterback will soon prove that. Mahomes is expected to participate in OTAs next week, James Palmer of NFL.com tweets.

Mahomes, who underwent surgery on his left foot shortly after Super Bowl LV, is not expected to take his usual number of reps in team drills, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Teicher. But the fifth-year passer will participate. He was initially not expected to be ready to return to work until the Chiefs’ mid-June minicamp.

Regardless of his participation level next week and in Kansas City’s minicamp, Palmer adds Mahomes is on track to be full-go by training camp. This is certainly positive news for the Chiefs, who made big moves to assemble a new offensive line for its franchise centerpiece this offseason.

The 25-year-old QB suffered the toe injury against the Browns in the divisional round. That became an afterthought after the concussion Mahomes encountered later in that game, but it has resulted in a few months of rehab. The Chiefs have Chad Henne under contract to return as Mahomes’ backup, with UDFAs Anthony Gordon (Washington State) and Shane Buechele (SMU) on the AFC champions’ 90-man roster as well.

Less than a year after signing the NFL’s most lucrative contract, Patrick Mahomes agreed to restructure it.

The MVP quarterback will restructure his deal and create $17MM in cap space for the Chiefs, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Language in the two-time Super Bowl starter’s deal allows the Chiefs to automatically restructure it to create cap space, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.

The Chiefs will move much of Mahomes’ $21.7MM roster bonus into a prorated signing bonus. This comes a day after the team cut both Mahomes’ starting tackles. Kansas City has created around $35MM in cap space over the past two days.

Even after the releases of Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher, the Chiefs were more than $4MM over the $182.5MM salary cap. Mahomes’ restructuring part of his 10-year, $450MM contract so soon will bring Kansas City under the cap, providing key ammo to go about adding new offensive linemen.

Patrick Mahomes was visibly hobbled during last night’s Super Bowl loss, and it sounds like his turf toe injury will result in surgery. Before the game, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported (via Twitter) that the quarterback was likely to go under the knife once the season ended.

Rapoport noted that Mahomes will first meet with a foot specialist before determining how he should proceed, but he’s expected to undergo surgery to repair the issue for the “long term.” The surgery would require a “multi-month” recovery process that would likely knock Mahomes out for much of the spring. Rapoport estimates that that the 25-year-old will be fully recovered by the start of training camp.

The injury has been lingering since the Chiefs playoff win over the Browns. Mahomes was still able to toss three touchdowns in the AFC Championship against the Bills, and the quarterback pointed to that performance when he was asked if injuries were to blame for his performance yesterday.

“I can’t say the toe was a problem when I played two weeks ago and I played well on it,” Mahomes said. “If you’re playing football, you have to battle through injuries. We’ll look at it tomorrow and make a final decision on it if we’re going to have to have surgery on it or not.”

Still, the injury sounds like it may have been more significant than Mahomes let on. A source told Rapoport that “it’s amazing how good [Mahome’s] looked considering the issue.”

Jan. 22, 2:00pm: Mahomes has cleared the concussion protocol, as the star QB announced to reporters this afternoon. Players who are in the protocol don’t meet with the media, so the fact that Mahomes had press availability suggested that he had been given the all-clear, and that is indeed the case. With that, the much-anticipated showdown between Mahomes’ Chiefs and Josh Allen‘s Bills will have its headliners.

Jan. 20, 3:28pm: The Chiefs listed Mahomes as limited in today’s practice, though Mike Garafolo of NFL.com notes this was more of an estimation on his status since the team partook in a light workout overall (Twitter link). But had Kansas City gone through a full practice, its all-world quarterback would have been limited. Reid said Mahomes has yet to be cleared for full contact work, per the Washington Post’s Mark Maske (on Twitter). This points to Thursday being a pivotal day for Mahomes, who is in the final stages of the concussion protocol.

Jan. 20, 10:31am: Patrick Mahomes will practice on Wednesday, but he’ll be taking it easy, as NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets. The Chiefs quarterback remains in the NFL’s concussion protocol but plans to slowly ramp things up over the course of the week.

Fortunately, Mahomes is symptom-free after taking an ill-fated hard hit against the Browns. Mahomes was left dazed in the third quarter, forcing him out of the game in favor of Chad Henne. Henne had never thrown a postseason pass before — he went on to record his first ever playoff victory.

At this point, Mahomes is on track to be cleared in time for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game. Still, there are hurdles to clear. Per the league’s protocol, the QB must go through five steps; his light Wednesday workout is part of step No. 4. After going through a full practice, Mahomes will need the green light from team doctors and an independent neurologist.

“So listen, I just leave that with [team trainer] Rick [Burkholder] and the docs,” head coach Andy Reid said earlier this week. “Because of the protocol, it’s a no-brainer from the coach’s standpoint. You don’t have to think about it, you just have to make sure you go forward and have an answer if he’s there and an answer if he’s not there. I can’t tell you from a medical standpoint where he’s at. I mean, I don’t know that. That’s their decision and I just follow it.”

While Patrick Mahomes must continue to clear hurdles in order to suit up for his third AFC championship game, the Chiefs continue to express optimism the former MVP and Super Bowl MVP will do so.

Mahomes cleared the necessary steps in concussion protocol Monday but remains in the protocol as of Tuesday. And he is indeed dealing with foot trouble as well, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com notes (Twitter links). The fourth-year quarterback appeared to be hobbling prior to his second-half concussion and will be battling multiple issues in order to face the Bills.

Mahomes is expected to practice Wednesday, though returning to workouts does not mean a player has completed the five-step protocol. Participation in light workouts, however, is the fourth phase of this process, with full practices being the final step. Chiefs doctors and an independent neurologist must clear Mahomes to play against the Bills.

Kansas City managed to beat a playoff-bound Minnesota team without Mahomes last season and held off Cleveland with Chad Henne at the controls. However, the Bills having won eight straight games — were it not for DeAndre Hopkins‘ miracle game-winner, said streak would be at 12 since Buffalo’s Week 6 loss to Kansas City — would make for an incredibly difficult Chiefs task without Mahomes. The superstar passer has missed just two games due to injury in his career.