Understanding contracts given to KC Chiefs undrafted free agents

Each of the Kansas City Chiefs undrafted free agents are given a three-year contract as they enter the NFL—same as every other team.

As it turns out, it takes a while for a player to be able to “earn” a one-year deal in the National Football League.

Every year, we hear and read about players who are willing to take one-year contracts in the NFL, a sign that teams aren’t willing to venture too far in their trust of that player to produce over a longer period of time. It might also signal a move on the player’s part to only want to be tied down for a single season in hopes of earning greater potential the following year.

It can be surprising then when we read that a player like, say, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Shea Patterson has signed a three-year contract with the team. Upon reading it, because of the one-year deals offered to players like, say, cornerback Bashaud Breeland, it’s easy to want to read between the lines—perhaps to assume that the Chiefs like Patterson’s potential so much that they want him around through at least 2022.

However, the three-year deal given to Patterson and players like him is a bit deceiving. Yes, Patterson’s official contract terms read as $2.285 million over three years with a 2020 base salary of $610K. That said, none of the money is guaranteed and that exact same deal was offered to every single undrafted free agent in the NFL in 2020.

Every player who signs as a UDFA (or what is sometimes called a rookie free agent or priority free agent) is given a three-year deal. After the three years is up, they are then considered a restricted free agent, which means the franchise that originally signed them can match any deal offered by another team. It’s only after the fourth year that the player is able to hit unrestricted free agency.

Thus, when you read something like “Tyler Newsome signs three-year contract with the Chiefs,” you can know that he’s signing the very same deal that’s given to everyone else. It doesn’t signal a particular level of interest in the player on behalf of the team. Given the lack of guaranteed money, each team’s actual commitment to an undrafted free agent is fairly minimal.