NFL Rumors: Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs Contract Likely to Be Reworked After 2026 Season | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Mia Horton After reworking Patrick Mahomes' contract at the start of this season, the Kansas City Chiefs may not have to worry about another adjustment for two more years.
Per CBS Sports' Jonathan Jones, the Chiefs will "likely" rework Mahomes' deal after the 2026 season as long as he continues to play at a high level.
In September, Mahomes and the Chiefs agreed to restructure his deal so that he is paid $210.6 million over four seasons from 2023 to '26. It's the most money ever paid to a player over a four-year period in NFL history.
Mahomes signed a 10-year extension with the Chiefs in July 2020 that was structured in such a way that it would pay him top-of-the-market money but also provided the organization with the flexibility to make adjustments for cap flexibility to keep a strong roster around him.
The potential total value of the deal when it was originally signed was $503 million, including $477 million in guarantee mechanisms.
Ian Rapoport @RapSheetWhat's the guarantee mechanism? Basically, the team guarantees Patrick Mahomes' salary a year out. And if they don't pick up each guarantee, they have to cut him (to avoid picking up the future guarantee). <a href="">
According to Jones, Mahomes and the Chiefs spent "months" last offseason working on restructuring the deal before finally agreeing to terms after the regular season began.
Mahomes is poised to count $57.4 million against the cap in 2024, but Jones noted a simple restructure done in the offseason can get that number down to around $20 million.
That's notable because Chris Jones and L'Jarius Snead are the key players on Kansas City's roster set to hit free agency. The team does have the franchise tag available to keep one of them from hitting the market if it can't get a deal done ahead of time.
It might be difficult for the Chiefs to tag Jones, who will cost almost $34 million on the one-year tender.
Official franchise tag figures aren't yet available, but Spotrac projects the value for cornerbacks will be $18.8 million.
It could be easier for the Chiefs to tag Snead and try to work out a long-term deal than go down that path with Jones, who already went through an extended holdout last offseason and into the regular season before signing a new one-year deal on Sept. 12.
Mahomes' deal was designed to give the Chiefs as much flexibility as possible. The results have paid off so far, as they are set to play in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in the past five seasons on Sunday when they take on the San Francisco 49ers.