Chiefs to Begin Extension Talks with Patrick Mahomes This Summer
The Chiefs plan to begin contract extension negotiations with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes this summer, chairman Clark Hunt said Wednesday evening.
“The negotiations are something we’ll be getting into this summer,” Hunt said on a Facebook Live event with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “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.”
Mahomes is currently set to count around $5.3 million against the salary cap in 2020 on the fourth year of his rookie contract, but the expectation is he’ll sign a long-term extension and become the NFL’s highest-paid player given all he has accomplished early in his career.
Mahomes, 24, was named the NFL MVP in a spectacular 2018 and followed that up by leading the Chiefs to a Super Bowl title in the 2019 season, during which he threw for 4,031 yards, 26 touchdowns and five interceptions in 15 games in the regular season.
Hunt knows as well as anyone what Mahomes means to his organization.
“In terms of special qualities, the thing that really struck me in 2018, the first year that he became a full-time starter for us, was his leadership ability,” Hunt said. “We knew he had these special physical gifts. We had seen him on the practice field. We’d seen the no-look throws. We had seen the 70-yard bombs, all that stuff – I’m not sure we had seen the left-handed throw but maybe. But anyhow, we knew we had that. But the pleasant surprise was what a great leader he was at age 23. An NFL locker room is a very difficult place to come into as a young player and lead, but it was very evident that the entire team was looking up to him in his first year as a starter – and of course that carried over into this past season.
“He has a tremendous amount of humility going back to what I said about leadership qualities. So he’s very humble on one hand and very competitive on the other and his teammates all respect him and want to play for him and with him.” [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
I have trouble believing they'll get it done with all the uncertainty about next season, but fingers crossed.
I'm not up on current NFL contract rules. Are they allowed to negotiate through he season? If they are, I can see an announcement sometime late November/early December of a new contract for some reason. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
I'm not up on current NFL contract rules. Are they allowed to negotiate through he season? If they are, I can see an announcement sometime late November/early December of a new contract for some reason.
Mahomes is under the Chiefs control until approximately March 15th, 2022 which at that point, they'll need to either place the Franchise Tag on him or allow him to hit Free Agency.
He's currently under contract for $5.3 million in 2020 and since he's earned two Pro Bowl berths in his first three seasons, he'll be paid the average of the Top 5 QB's for his 5th season, which will equal the Franchise Tag number for 2021.
If he's Franchised for the 2022 season, the Chiefs are allowed to negotiate a new contract with him until July 15th, 2022.
That said, I seriously doubt that either side will allow the negotiations to continue for the next 2 years. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
I'm not up on current NFL contract rules. Are they allowed to negotiate through he season? If they are, I can see an announcement sometime late November/early December of a new contract for some reason.
Yeah, they can. There are some weird rules, but it's certainly not unusual for a player to get an extension during the season.
My concern is more about lost league revenue this year and the impact on the salary cap. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Yeah, they can. There are some weird rules, but it's certainly not unusual for a player to get an extension during the season.
My concern is more about lost league revenue this year and the impact on the salary cap.
It'll be interesting to see what the NFL comes up with in order to combat their loss of a projected $3.2 billion in the 2020 season due to the absence of fans.
There have been all kinds of suggestions for teams to make up lost revenue due to the elimination of fans in stadiums, from covering seats with advertisements to ads and sponsorship on player's jerseys.
I doubt they'll be able to fully cover $100 million per team in lost revenue but they may be able to soften that hit substantially. [Reply]
If locking up Mahomes long term means that we lose Jones, then so be it. I'd love to have both, but everybody can't be the richest ever at their position and still win a team sport. It would be cool as hell to know for certain the cap will jump enough to sign both and keep the team competitive. But, this damn Covid crap has the entire country in uncertainty. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Jones shouldn't sign a "reasonable deal", either.
I’m not saying he should. I was just pointing out that Red Dawg wasn’t suggesting anything about Mahomes signing a reasonable deal. No one said anything about Mahomes being unreasonable. I’m really interested to see how it works out. [Reply]
