The expected became the completed on Monday afternoon, with the Kansas City Chiefs completing a ten-year contract extension with Super Bowl Champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes, keeping the Texas Tech product with the franchise through 2031. The deal was first reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN. The extension has been widely anticipated to be a foregone conclusion, with both parties moving towards completion of the contract, with Mahomes holding an MVP trophy and Super Bowl title over the past two years.
According to Schefter, the contract will be the richest in NFL history, with one of the unique aspects of the deal including language that allows Mahomes the opportunity to make more money annually with anticipated salary cap increases on a yearly basis, “tying the contract to a set percentage of the salary cup for each season”.
After years of utilizing the free agent and trade routes (remember Steve Bono, Joe Montana, and Trent Green?) to find quarterbacks after the 1983 selection of Penn State’s Todd Blackledge in the first round, the franchise made a bold move in 2017, trading up with the Buffalo Bills in the draft to select Mahomes tenth overall, ahead of national championship quarterback DeShaun Watson of Clemson, a move questioned by some at the time. After sitting behind Alex Smith in 2017, Mahomes led the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game in 2018, where KC lost to the eventual champion Patriots, ending a season that saw 50 touchdown passes and 5,097 passing yards. Although a mid-season knee injury kept his numbers lower in 2019, Mahomes rallied Kansas City to a #2 seed in the AFC, with victories over Houston, Tennessee, and San Francisco bringing the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Mid-America for the first time since the days of Len Dawson and Hank Stram.