Patrick Mahomes’ contract maximizes Chiefs flexibility well into the future

This week’s Chiefs Chatter covers Patrick Mahomes’ contract, new trivia and much more!

On Monday, the Kansas City Chiefs announced a 10 year contract extension for All-World quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The deal ensures that Mahomes is tied to Kansas City through the 2031 season (12 more years), and that he will be the highest-paid football player in NFL history. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the deal is for 10 years, and $503 million, with $477 million on “guarantee mechanisms.”

It’s still a steal for Kansas City.

The long-term nature of the deal means that for the next 12 years, general manager Brett Veach has unprecedented flexibility in shuffling and managing the salary cap. It’s all an effort to avoid the same pitfalls of other teams, general managers and mega-contract quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan and so many more who have failed to win Super Bowls after giving their superstar signal callers record-setting deals.

This flexibility ensures that Mahomes’ money can be moved around to create space as needed when free agents like Tyrann Mathieu (in 2019) become available, somewhat unexpectedly, on the open market. It also helps when veterans can be had at discount prices to be part of a Super Bowl contender (e.g. LeSean McCoy or Terrell Suggs).

Mahomes was clear in statements to reporters over the last two years that he not only wanted to stay in Kansas City for the rest of his career, but also that he wanted to ensure the team could still build a championship contender around him. It is difficult to say that earning a half-billion dollars over 12 years is taking a “discount,” but Mahomes gave as close to a discount as you can get to aid the Chiefs for the long term.

Chiefs Trivia

Each week’s column will feature a trivia question related to the Kansas City Chiefs. Challenge yourself by coming up with the correct response without looking it up! Enter for a chance to win a Chiefs prize via either Facebook or Twitter Direct/Private Messaging. Must retweet or share the column on your personal page, and provide the correct answer via PM/DM, to be eligible. Winner will be chosen at random on Saturday.

Last week’s winner was Kay Korver who received a Chiefs autograph for correctly identifying Jamaal Charles as the Chiefs rusher with a 5.4 yards per career average.

This week’s question trivia is: Before Patrick Mahomes’ extension, how many NFL players had signed contracts which spanned for 10 or more years? 

Reader Question

Each week, we’ll answer a question or two from readers about our team. These can be about any topic related to the Chiefs, send me a question via DM (@kthomps58).

This week’s question comes from Mykala Harris of Emporia, Kansas. Mykala asks: What Chiefs players, other than Chris Jones, are in line for extensions next? 

The names that should be on the radar of Chiefs Kingdom include:

Tyrann Mathieu will be eligible for an extension after the 2020 season, and will have only one year remaining on his contract. He’ll be 31 before the 2022 season starts (the first year of his new contract), so whether the Chiefs invest long term in keeping him may depend on the development of Juan Thornhill.

Both starting offensive tackles, Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher, can be cut after the 2020 season with minimal cap repercussions for Kansas City. Inversely, both could also be extended. With third round pick Lucas Niang now on board, it can be assumed that the plan will be to move on from at least one of them, and likely try to keep the other on an extension.

Otherwise, the Chiefs do not have a lot of pending free agents who are likely to receive long term extensions from the team. Although, of course, there is no shortage of soon-to-be free agents on the roster.

Chiefs Fact of the Week

Chiefs Legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer Len Dawson has an estimated net worth of around $10 million, or roughly 2 percent of the amount of money that Patrick Mahomes will have earned by the end of his new contract in 2031.

Chiefs Record of the Week

According to Pro Football Reference, safety Deron Cherry led the Chiefs in “Approximate Value” for four consecutive seasons 1983-1986. It is the longest streak of such ranking in Chiefs history and a(nother) record that Mahomes seems destined to break. (Not that you need me to tell you, but he led the team in AV in 2018 and 2019.)

Random Fact of the Week

The net worth of the Kansas City Chiefs is approximately $2.3 billion. In other words, Patrick Mahomes’ new contract is worth nearly 20% of the total value of the franchise.

Sports Quote of the Week

Best quote of the week…

Oddball Sport of the Week

Pedestrianism was a 19th century sport of competitive walking. It’s roots were the foundation for the modern day sport, racewalking.

NFL Story of the Week

In a refreshing departure from months of COVID headlines, the NFL Story of the Week is the fallout from the Patrick Mahomes contract extension and specifically, how it will impact other quarterbacks in line for an extension. Some had speculated that the Mahomes deal could have been tied to a percentage of the salary cap, but that trend-setting stipulation failed to pass, thus keeping average yearly salaries as the staple of NFL contract-making.

Does the Super Bowl LIV MVP’s new contract impact negotiations for other quarterbacks around the league? The simple answer is yes, of course it does. But the more complicated answer is that it does, but only marginally. There is not a quarterback in the league in a position to leverage or negotiate with their team to the degree that Mahomes was in. No other team in the league is going to guarantee (or offer “guarantee mechanisms” of half a billion dollars for their quarterback(s)).

So, Pat’s new contract does increase the salaries for other quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson and Dak Prescott.