Mitchell Schwartz’s one-year extension is still below current market rate, but the parameters involved made it a smart move on both sides.
All week long, we’ll be taking a look at the Kansas City Chiefs offensive line and how the commitments will change in the years to come. How much stability do the Chiefs have up front? Where are likely changes coming? We’ll know a lot more after we sort out the details.
The Chiefs generated headlines last week with a contract extension for one of their stars, albeit not the one you might expect. Instead of locking up defensive lineman Chris Jones, a player already holding out of mandatory minicamp in hopes of pushing the front office forward on their stated goals of signing him to an extension, the Chiefs turned their attention to a player already at Arrowhead: right tackle Mitchell Schwartz.
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Schwartz received a one-year contract extension from the Chiefs in a move that will lock up the team’s best o-lineman through the year 2021. It’s a move that made plenty of sense for both sides, even if the timing was a little curious.
For Schwartz, a player who has outperformed his current market deal by a country mile, the chance to tack on an extra season makes sense for a couple reasons. After signing a five-year, $33 million deal back in 2016, the market has skyrocketed for all tackles (not just those on the left side). Schwartz’s cap hit for the next two seasons stands at $8 million for each year, well below market rate for a player of Schwartz’s caliber.
For the Chiefs, the ability to depend on Schwartz over the last few years has allowed them to focus on other problem areas while avoiding any real youth development at the position. The only draft investments over the last four years at offensive line have come along the interior (Parker Ehinger, Kahlil McKenzie, Nick Allegretti). That’s a nice luxury provided by such stable presences on the outside in Schwartz and Eric Fisher.
Schwartz has been named NFL All-Pro for two of his three seasons with the Chiefs. Last season, he was the highest graded offensive lineman in the entire league by Pro Football Focus. Fewer players have better reason to balk at their current deals than Schwartz given that the Chiefs had arguably the league’s best right tackle on the books for nearly half of what the Oakland Raiders are paying their right tackle this season (Trent Brown). Schwartz was due for a raise.
Coming in at $11.2 million, the new one-year extension is still less than what Schwartz could command on the open market, but therein lies the rub: he’s not eligible to hit that market for two more years. The Chiefs could simply force him to play out his current years without any further security whatsoever. At that point, Schwartz might still be the pillar at the position he is today, but he could also begin to decline. For a man who just turned 30, that’s a bigger gamble than the last time he hit free agency.
Despite his iron man streak of consecutive snaps, Schwartz was happy to add a deal for a few million more at a time when he will be 33 heading into the regular season. Schwartz is already an anomaly of availability, so it’s impossible to project just how long he will play, let alone at such a high level. Therefore, it’s a give on Schwartz’s part monetarily in exchange for some risk for the Chiefs on an older player.
With all of the parameters in mind, Schwartz and the Chiefs made a win-win deal that made enough sense to get done before anyone likely thought such a move could come. From a team perspective, right tackle is now locked down for the foreseeable future and beyond, giving the front office plenty of time to decide when and where to start developing the team’s future tackles without any sense of urgency.