Sunday’s catastrophic injuries to both Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons have reignited a debate over the NFL’s expanding schedule.
The Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Mahomes suffered a brutal non-contact knee injury during Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. In the fourth quarter at Geha Field in Kansas City, Mo., Mahomes’ left knee seemed to pop after a pass attempt (video here). The Chiefs later confirmed Mahomes had indeed torn the ACL in his knee.
Then just a few hours later, the Green Bay Packers star defensive end Parsons suffered a non-contact knee injury of his own. It was in the third quarter at Empower Field in Denver, Colo. that Parsons went down clutching his own his left knee while trying to rush the quarterback (see the clip here). Word has since emerged that the Packers reportedly believe that Parsons tore his ACL as well.
In response to the brutal day of injuries, headlined by arguably the top offensive player in the league going down and then arguably the top defensive player in the league going down, fans all said the same thing over social media. They blamed the NFL schedule for supposedly having too many games.
Pat Mahomes and Micah Parsons tearing their ACL’s on the same day. So many injuries. Too many games. Not enough bye weeks.
— Ed. (@DepressedDETN) December 15, 2025
Too many games. https://t.co/zd9amMgMSd
— The Chaos Khushrenada (@ReturnOfMrYeah) December 15, 2025
First Mahomes and now Micah Parsons has hurt his knee.
— Chiefs Lead (@ChiefsLead) December 14, 2025
And the @NFL wants to go to an 18 game schedule.
Madness!! pic.twitter.com/yYkoKJqQvO
But the NFL wants 18 games…. https://t.co/L5J3xEgq6r
— ĐƦℨ ☥ (@_Dresayless) December 15, 2025
Mahomes and Parsons were not the only notable players who suffered injuries on Sunday either. Davante Adams (hamstring), Christian Watson (chest), Devin Neal (hamstring), and Woody Marks (ankle) were among the others who went down over the course of the day’s action as well.
Regardless of whether or not the packed NFL schedule is to blame for the recent scourge of injuries around the league, we do know that the league moved from 16 games to 17 games beginning in the 2021 season. With an 18-game schedule also potentially on the table for future years, that will only mean more wear-and-tear on players and increased opportunities for devastating soft-tissue injuries like the ones that we unfortunately saw on Sunday.
