Trey Smith's run as the NFL's highest-paid guard didn't last long in the first place. One year later, he’s fallen even further down the list.
When the Kansas City Chiefs signed the star guard to a four-year, $94 million extension last July, a deal that included $70M guaranteed, they made Smith the highest-paid guard in NFL history. For years, interior linemen have been under-compensated compared to their colleagues at tackle, but the market has corrected course to bridge that gap. That the market has moved beyond Smith as fast as it has is good news for IOL across the NFL.
The latest guard to leap over Smith is Peter Skoronski, who signed a four-year, $100M extension with the Tennessee Titans on Friday. The terms of the deal included $88M in guaranteed money and pushed the position's ceiling to $25M annually. Skoronski is a former tackle out of Northwestern who moved inside to guard when the Titans drafted him at No. 11 overall in 2023 and is coming off the best season of his career. Pro Football Focus graded him as the sixth-best guard in the league a year ago, and the Titans moved to extend him with one year remaining on his rookie deal.Â
Skoronski wasn’t the only guard to cash in during training camp. Less than a week earlier, the Atlanta Falcons gave Matthew Bergeron a four-year, $96M extension worth $24M annually. Dallas Cowboys lineman Tyler Smith's 2025 extension also checks in at the same annual amount. That puts the top of the guard market at Skoronski's $25M, followed by Tyler Smith and Bergeron at $24M, with Trey Smith fourth at $23.5M. A year ago, Smith was king of the hill, but the market has shifted. The guaranteed money involved tells the same story. The Chiefs’ willingness to fork over $70M was the most ever handed to a guard, but Skoronski's $88M cleared that total by $18M. Every benchmark Smith set has since been passed.
Interior linemen are getting paid, which makes the Chiefs' decision to lock up Trey Smith look better with each new extension.
One offseason ago, the Chiefs faced the difficult decision about how to handle Smith’s looming freedom as his rookie contract expired. The former sixth-round pick had turned into a Pro Bowl performer and yet the Chiefs also had Joe Thuney on the books with Creed Humphrey as expensive interior linemen. The escalating salary cap came in higher than expected, and the Chiefs pivoted by trading Thuney to the Chicago Bears and leaning into a long-term relationship with Smith next to Humphrey.Â
Smith is signed through 2028 at a $23.5 million annual clip, just $1.5 million below the new top of the guard market. The Chiefs knew they wanted to lock up the Pro Bowl lineman through his prime, and the deals signed since have only made that decision look better. Smith just turned 27 years old and should be an offensive cornerstone for the Chiefs for the rest of his twenties.
Add us as a preferred source on Google