The Kansas City Chiefs haven’t often had long-term stability at the quarterback position during the history of the franchise, but a year ago today, that all changed.
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes signed a record-setting 10-year contract extension worth up to $503 million on this day last year. The contract locked him in with Kansas City through the 2031 season, through what should be the prime of his NFL career. He won’t become a free agent until he’s 36 years old. The deal made Mahomes not just the highest-paid QB in NFL history, but also the first athlete to receive a half-billion-dollar contract in all of sports.
Even with it being the richest deal in the league, Mahomes’ contract still feels like a bargain for the Chiefs. How can the richest deal in NFL history be considered a bargain, though? Well, look at the 2021 offseason as an example. The Chiefs structured Mahomes’ contract so that they can clear salary-cap space at will by converting a portion of his yearly salary to a signing bonus. They used that method this year to sign free-agent left guard Joe Thuney, handing him a five-year, $80 million contract, making him the highest-paid guard in the NFL.
Beyond the flexibility that Mahomes’ contract provides, just having the best quarterback in the league on a long-term fixed contract is a bargain in and of itself. All the quarterbacks in the league who will be looking for extensions in the coming years could see their contracts impacted by ballooning salary cap numbers. Those numbers are going to be rise exponentially in 2023 due to the league’s new television deals. Kansas City won’t have to worry about that because it has already locked in its star quarterback.
Sometimes these big contracts for quarterbacks are considered a hindrance to team success, but the Chiefs aren’t going to worry about that with Mahomes’ deal. Its length and structure very much so will help to keep Kansas City in contention for a long time.
