Report: KC Chiefs and QB Patrick Mahomes Agree to Restructured Contract Agreement
Less than 24 hours after the Kansas City Chiefs secured their first win of the 2023-24 regular season, the team is making contract moves regarding one of the faces of the franchise. On Monday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the player seeing his financials change.
According to multiple reports, including one from Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Chiefs and Mahomes have "restructured his agreement," which gives the two-time NFL MVP a whopping $210.6 million in guaranteed money to earn between 2023 and 2026. Field Yates of ESPN reports that the deal creates $2.5M in 2023 cap space.
As Schefter notes, this is the most money a player is set to make over a four-season span in league history. Mahomes now tops four-year stretches in recent deals for other star signal-callers such as Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts. Chris Cabott, CEO of Equity Sports and a co-representative for Mahomes, negotiated the contract on his behalf. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that "with escalators, the agreement could reach $218.1M by the end of 2026."
Both sides are expected to revisit things at the conclusion of the 2026 campaign. Matt Verderame of Sports Illustrated reports that Mahomes's previous deal was not shortened with the new developments taking place. Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus notes that this raise is essentially a $48.3M one from 2023-2026.
Below are Mahomes's new cash flow figures for 2023-2026, per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk. It's important to note that these are not reflections of alterations to future salary cap hits. Spotrac highlighted the increases in cash over the previous structure on X, formerly Twitter, which are in parentheses.
- 2023: $56.85M (+$16.4M)
- 2024: $44.5M (+$6.55M)
- 2025: $50M (+$8.05M)
- 2026: $56.76M (+$14.81M)
During the Chiefs' first offseason session of organized team activities (OTAs) back in May, Mahomes spoke about his contract situation with the team. Here's some of what he had to say:
"Me, my agent and the team always keep open communication. And we try to do whatever is best for the team but obviously, I want to do the best for myself as well. But at the same time, I've always said I worry about legacy and winning rings more than money at this moment. I know we keep communication and we see what's going on around the league but at the same time, I'll never do anything that's going to hurt us from keeping the great players around me. So, it's kind of [about] teetering around that line."
The simplest way to explain this change in structure is that Kansas City is adjusting Mahomes's earnings to more accurately line up with the current quarterback market. Before this, he ranked eighth among all field generals in average salary per year, trailing the aforementioned names and also Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray and Deshaun Watson. Mahomes has accomplished more than any of those players to this point in his career and just a day after his 28th birthday, the franchise appears to be giving him a raise to reflect that while also setting aside some future time to pick up contract talks once again.
