KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu is entering the final year of his contract but made it clear this week that he wants to finish his career in Kansas City.
The Chiefs would certainly like to keep Mathieu in town beyond the 2021 season with a contract extension, but general manager Brett Veach didn't give an exact timetable Friday for getting a new deal in place.
"I don't know if there is a timeline," Veach said during his annual pre-draft news conference with the media. "Last year, we were able to get a lot of our guys done — they were all during the summer."
The Chiefs got new contracts worked out with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, defensive tackle Chris Jones and tight end Travis Kelce last summer.
Waiting until summer allowed Veach to focus on free agency and draft preparations before handling such in-house matters. The Chiefs seemed poised to mirror that approach after the 2021 NFL daft, which is scheduled for next week — April 29-May 1.
"I'm sure we'll have much more dialogue once we get into the spring and summer," Veach said.
Mathieu, who would earn a base salary of $14.5 million in 2021 without an extension, signed a three-year, $42 million deal in 2019. Over the past two seasons, Mathieu, who turns 29 on May 13, emerged as a clear leader and helped the Chiefs make two straight Super Bowl appearances, including a championship in Super Bowl LIV.
And Mathieu has proven highly durable, appearing in and starting in 31 games for the Chiefs. The lone game in which he didn't play was in Week 17 of the 2020 season, when most of the Chiefs' starters were rested ahead of the postseason.
He led the Chiefs' defense last year with six interceptions and played 100 percent of the team's defensive snaps in 12 of 15 games. He finished the season with 63 tackles in 979 snaps, or 91 percent of the Chiefs' total defensive snaps.
Widely regarded as one of the NFL's top strong safeties, Mathieu earned a second straight first-team All-Pro selection, the third of his career, in 2020.
There's plenty of time for the Chiefs to work out a new deal with their star safety before the start of the regular season, and given how much Mathieu means to the organization, doing so is a priority.
"Tyrann is certainly a big piece of our team and what we do now, and moving forward," Veach said.
