At some point, the Chiefs and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes are going to agree to a long-term extension that will make Mahomes the highest-paid player in NFL history. But while we heard back in February that the two sides could finalize something after the draft, negotiations have not yet gotten underway.
In a Facebook Live event with Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan yesterday, Kansas City chairman and CEO Clark Hunt spoke about contract discussions with the face of his franchise (story via Jelani Scott of NFL.com).
“The negotiations are something we’ll be getting into this summer,” Hunt said. “But what he has said and what we’ve said, both sides is, he wants to be a Kansas City Chief for life, and that’s our mentality as well. We want him to play his entire career in Kansas City, and that’s what we’re going to be shooting for.”
Hunt had indicated before this year’s Super Bowl that a Mahomes extension would not necessarily get done prior to the end of the 2020 season, but it appears that his timeline has been accelerated (it’s amazing what a Lombardi Trophy can do for someone’s goodwill). At the same time, it also makes sense from the team’s perspective to make sure that there will be a 2020 season before paying a player — even a player like Mahomes — tens of millions of dollars in upfront cash. Perhaps that’s why negotiations have been pushed back to the summer.
Mahomes was hampered a bit by a knee injury in 2019, so his regular season performance was not quite as otherworldly as it was in his MVP romp in 2018. But he was brilliant in the Chiefs’ title run, which culminated in Super Bowl MVP honors.
For his part, the 24-year-old sensation says he has no intentions of going anywhere. “I want to make sure I do [my next contract] the smart way and do it the right way, and so I don’t know exactly which way that is, yet,” Mahomes recently said. “I know that my people and the Chiefs’ people will talk about it, and will do it at the right time and for the betterment for the team. But I’m excited to be a Kansas City Chief for a very long time, and I know that’s going to be handled the right way because of the people the Kansas City Chiefs have in their organization
Will Mahomes take the Brady route and take a slightly discounted payday to leave salary cap for the rest of the team, or will he go all-in with a market-setting deal? Decisions, decisions…
Take the money, don’t give in to the pressure from other people telling you to leave money on the table for the good of the team unless the team also does good by you and makes your contract fully guaranteed
If you take a discount your basically undermining the negotiating leverage of your teammates and all other players of your position throughout the league.
Ask Aaron Rodgers how it has worked out with taking too large of a percentage of the team’s salary cap and not leaving enough to get enough strong supporting players? Just 1 Super Bowl appearance in his entire career beginning in 2005.
Easy enough. $150m in earning from GB alone, SB ring, and 1st ballot HoF’er. Farve has 1 ring as well doesn’t hurt his status in league lore.
If Rodgers only ends up with 1 ring he even going to be in the conversation with the all-time greats? Most likely not
He’s already top 10 in my opinion. And the ring argument doesn’t really work. This isn’t the NBA where a superstar can win championships without a lot of help. Is Trent Dilfer better than Dan Marino. Obviously not.
Yeah but Farve at least played in 2 and they were back to back.
And the year he lost he probably had the better team with 1,000+ yard rusher and 2 1,000+ yard receivers.
@jabi. The owners mindset is not “I got a discount so now I will get strong supporting players”. It’s more along the lines of “I found me one chump, so let’s see if I can get some other dominoes to fall”.
Packers have had plenty of cap room. Ted Thompson never spent it.
Amen! Brees always took the money. Besides that 3 year span of 7-9, NO has always been competitive in the NFC South. Manning loaded up as well & has 4 trips to the SB to show for it.
Now if you overpay for an average QB, that’s on the team. But even so; good for the QB to take his rightful earnings.
Is it even a negotiation? Doesn’t Mahomes agent just tell KC what the record breaking contract will be and KC pays it? I know Mahomes isn’t that kind of player, but I feel like negotiations are easy when you know it’s going to be the biggest contract ever, and the guy isn’t a question mark receiving it.
I think he’s waiting for Watson to sign his deal so that he has a reference guide when negotiating his extension
If I was Patrick, I will wait until Dak sign his contract. Maybe the salary cap will increase…. Jerry Jones has that pull to increase the players salary. Even to expand up to 8 more teams and add 2 more team in the playoff. Too much money not going to the players. TV revenues, Gambling, Food concessions and clothing.
In light of the current situation, I wouldn’t count on the salary cap rising any time soon. That’s likely something else execs have to keep in mind – if the salary caps goes lower, how do we field a team when one player eats up a now-larger percentage of the cap?
Just a hypothetical question and I don’t want to start a big war about it but lets say Dak gets 42 million and Mahomes gets 40 million. Do other quarterbacks look at Patrick Mahomes like you screwed us all dude?
I think it’s a pretty straight forward situation to understand from either perspective. Owners don’t want to set salary precedents because it makes them unpopular with the other owners. Conversely, QBs want to see other QBs get as much as possible because it strengthens their bargaining position.