Last week, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs agreed to a restructured deal that will pay him $210.6 million through the 2026 season.
In the 2020 offseason, Mahomes agreed to a lucrative $450 million extension that carried a max value of $503 million. Mahomes has been vocal about wanting to take less to help the Chiefs’ QB situation, but there was a key motive for him to get the (well-deserved) raise.
Per ESPN’s Adam Teicher, Mahomes said he eyed a pay increase to help the NFL quarterback market:
“You have to watch and see what what’s going on around the league and find that right spot, and I thought we found a good one in this negotiation that we did [in] that we will be able to still keep cap space for other guys to get signed.
I’m glad that now I can just go out there and play football. You get that security — and I already had it — but just to get a little bump and then be able to go back out there and just play football, I’m excited for it…
You’ve got to keep the bar going; you got to keep it moving. I don’t want people to be negotiated against me, and so that’s the reason that you do something like I did this last week … just trying to keep the market moving in the right direction, training in the right direction, so not only me but other quarterbacks in other positions can get paid the money that they deserve.”
Earlier this month, Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow signed a five-year extension worth $275 million. The $55 million average annual pay made Burrow the highest-paid player in league history.
Mahomes and the defending Super Bowl champions will try to improve to 3-0 on the year when they host the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
