The cornerback market is a weird one. There is still a great divide between outside corners and slot defenders. Kyler Gordon of the Bears is currently the highest-paid nickel in the NFL, and his $13,333,333 APY is less than half of the top outside player—Sauce Gardner at $30,100,000.
This makes Trent McDuffie such a fascinating player and negotiation to watch. Not because McDuffie is still playing in the slot at a high rate—just 20% of his snaps this year have come inside. That’s a huge departure from his 2023 season, which was perhaps his best, when he lined up in the slot around 50% of the time.
How much McDuffie’s time and success in the slot will come into play during his negotiations will be an interesting point to watch in his eventual deal.
Kansas City could have opted to sign him to an early extension this past offseason, as the New York Jets and Houston Texans did with his 2022 draft class cohorts, Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley Jr. Instead, the team decided to exercise the fifth-year option on his contract, ensuring he stayed under contract through at least 2026. It didn’t seem to faze him much.
Prior to the season, McDuffie said of the impending negotiations:"I'm not too worried about the contract. That can just happen in the [next] offseason. Let's just go out there and have a great year."
Chiefs' general manager Brett Veach was also not worried when speaking about an impending pact between the two sides. “That’s where I think the relationship will push through. We did have a chance to catch up before and during training camp, and I think things have been good. It’s not one of these where it's like, ‘Whoa. Wait, huge difference.’ I think that there's an area of understanding on both sides. And we're working through a bunch of stuff, but needless to say, those conversations will continue. And Trent’s obviously a guy that we want to make it a priority to get that done.”
In waiting, they are adding McDuffie to a backlog of players whose contracts will need to be addressed.
Finding Trent McDuffie's Value
Veach’s admission that the two sides aren’t too far apart in the initial numbers traded means one of two things. Either Kansas City feels McDuffie is one of the absolute premier corners in the game, worthy of a deal near or above Gardner and Stingley. Or, more likely, McDuffie and his camp understand that while he is due for a nice payday, it is going to be in the second tier of the burgeoning corner market.
The two years of mostly outside corner play should dominate McDuffie’s valuation and market. Looking through all cornerback contracts since 2020, the three that profile most similarly to McDuffie across a multitude of production, age, and draft markers are Jalen Ramsey (2020), Deommodore Lenoir (2024), and D.J. Reed (2022).
*Note: these production values come from Pro Football Focus and McDuffie's numbers represent an extrapolation of his 2025 season-to-date over a full season.
Player | Age | Draft Round | PFF Cov Grade | Cov Snaps | INT | Snaps/Target | Forced Incompletions | FI Rate | Tot Tackles | PBU | QBR Against | Defensive Stops | Catches Allowed | Slot Snaps | Yds/Cov Rep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trent McDuffie (2024-2025) | 26.0 | 1 | 77.9 | 1256 | 4 | 7.5 | 17 | 9.99% | 117 | 11 | 88.9 | 34 | 107 | 355 | 0.76 |
Jalen Ramsey (2018-2019) | 25.9 | 1 | 70.0 | 1105 | 4 | 6.8 | 17 | 10.49% | 90 | 14 | 85.0 | 16 | 97 | 145 | 1.16 |
Deommodore Lenoir (2022-2023) | 24.9 | 5 | 64.0 | 1255 | 4 | 6.7 | 15 | 8.06% | 112 | 9 | 90.9 | 27 | 132 | 517 | 1.25 |
D.J. Reed (2020-2021) | 25.8 | 5 | 73.2 | 986 | 4 | 8.0 | 14 | 11.38% | 91 | 10 | 70.4 | 24 | 70 | 123 | 0.79 |
The Lenoir comp is of note because at the time he signed his extension, he was a hybrid slot/perimeter corner. But looking at the average of these three deals, applied to a hypothetical $300 million salary cap in 2026, would put McDuffie’s market at about $22.5 million per year. That would tie him with DaRon Bland for the sixth-highest-paid corner in the NFL.
McDuffie has more accolades—an additional All-Pro selection—and a better draft pedigree than Bland, not to mention a much more consistent track record. Looking a bit further under the hood, I found McDuffie is projected to finish 2025 with a yds/cov rep from 2023 through 2025 of 0.8.
There are only nine corners since 2020 who were under 27 when they signed deals after recording over 1,000 coverage reps and allowed less than 0.9 yards per coverage rep. That list of names is quite impressive: Stingley Jr. (2025), Gardner (2025), Jaycee Horn (2025), Jalen Pitre (2025), Pat Surtain II (2024), A.J. Terrell (2024), Jaylon Johnson (2024), Denzel Ward (2022), and Tre’Davious White (2020).
Applying the average of these deals to a $300 million cap puts McDuffie at $26 million per year. A four-year extension at that rate would come in at $104 million. Add in the option year he is already under contract for in 2026, and the total deal would be five years and $117.632 million.
The prevailing contract to model after would be White’s 2020 deal (four years, $69 million). His $17.25 million APY was 8.7% of the salary cap that year. This deal would be almost identical to that mark. His total guarantees on this deal would be around $75 million, and his full guarantees would land at about $50 million.
This deal would make McDuffie the third-highest-paid corner in the NFL, just outpacing Horn but coming in just under the Gardner/Stingley tier. It also locks up one of Kansas City’s best players for years to come.