Patrick Mahomes addressed the Kansas City Chiefs’ controversial signing of Justin Tucker after the kicker served a 10-game suspension for multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
“We have a lot of people that have kind of added in and out. I try not to get too high or too low on anything,” Mahomes, 31, told reporters on Wednesday, October 28. “I know [Chiefs general manager Brett Veach] and them do a great job of bringing great players in.”
The quarterback said his focus is aimed on the division rival Denver Broncos, who the Chiefs play on Sunday, November 1.
“We have a lot of stuff that we have to clean up,” Mahomes noted. “I think that’s the biggest thing for us, is trying to clean up before this big game that we have.”
Mahomes said he and Tucker, 36, “haven’t had a lot of conversations because he was obviously on the [Baltimore] Ravens and I was on the Chiefs.”
However, Mahomes did acknowledge his shaky past with Tucker. Before the 2023 AFC Championship Game between the Chiefs and Ravens, Mahomes and teammate Travis Kelce accused Tucker of getting in the way of Kansas City’s warm-up routine on the field.
“In that moment, it was just competitors being competitors,” Mahomes said on Wednesday. “It was a big moment for everybody’s career and you’re playing in the AFC Championship Game. He’s been a big time kicker for a long time. Me and Trav were obviously competing and we wanted to go out there and win, and that stuff happened. But then you move on from that.”
He added, “At the end of the day, we’re just playing a game, and you want to compete and you want to win. But it wasn’t like we had some long-standing beef that kind of carried over after the game. We won that game and I was on to the Super Bowl. It was nothing hostile, I guess you would say, moving forward from that.”
The Chiefs signed Tucker to the practice squad on Wednesday amid starting kicker Harrison Butker’s continued struggles. Head coach Andy Reid said Butker, 31, will likely start against the Broncos on Sunday, but was noncommittal about plans after that.
During his own media availability on Wednesday, Reid, 68, was asked about the message signing Tucker sends to the Chiefs’ “female fans.”
“He’s done his suspension,” Reid said. “Took care of that business there. I’ll leave it at that for you.”
Reid added, “We try to do our homework the best way we possibly can. Talked to a lot of people to make sure things are OK.”
When asked what specific “homework” had been done, Reid was vague.
“Listen, I’m not going to get into all that,” he said. “But to bring him in here ,I did some homework, yeah. I’m not going to get into all that. But I mean, he’s here and he’s on the practice squad. So, we roll with it.”
Tucker was issued a 10-game suspension in June 2025 after the NFL conducted an investigation into claims he had been sexually inappropriate with 16 massage therapists during his time with the Ravens. He has denied the allegations.
