• The Chiefs didn’t have to do what they did in reworking Patrick Mahomes’s deal, effectively moving more than $43 million in the contract from its final five years to these next four years. They had him signed through 2031, and that’s why agent Chris Cabott had to be the one to broach the idea with Kansas City’s top negotiators in February, two days before Super Bowl LVII. And truth be told, the request he went to them with would be laughed out of the room in most cases.
This, of course, wasn’t most cases, because Mahomes isn’t most players.
Which is why Kansas City was more than willing to work with Cabott and the quarterback on revising the contract to reflect the NFL’s changing economic times.
So Mahomes’s camp may have needed to ask. But, of course, the Chiefs were going to do it, and they were going to do whatever they needed to keep Mahomes happy.
“That’s basically it,” says one Kansas City official, laughing while explaining the logic.
We had a full breakdown on the site Monday night, and I’d encourage any of you to read it if you’re interested in all the ins and outs of the deal. The bottom line is the Chiefs and Mahomes worked out a deal three years ago that they thought was built to change with the market—with his APY (average per year) doubling over the final six years of the 12-year deal, which added 10 years to the two left on his rookie contract.
Then, the market outpaced their projection (by a lot), and this offseason created a breaking point where the $50 million-per-year barrier was ripped through by Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, with that number also sitting there as the average on the back half of Mahomes’s deal (2026–31). That, again, made it so the Chiefs almost had to do something.
And I’d say even still they feel pretty good about the investment.
• While we’re there, I’ve got a fun leftover from my conversation with USC assistant Kliff Kingsbury. The former Cardinals and Texas Tech coach was taking me through how coaching Johnny Manziel prepared him for working with Mahomes at his alma mater, and he ended up getting himself to an interesting comment that should resonate with NFL folks.
“It really solidified for me coaching Johnny [at Texas A&M]—” Kingsbury says. “They’re here because they played that style. That’s how they play. Let’s just try and make that style work for them, and help it anyway we can. Like I said, I’ve gotten to see two really extreme cases of it, and they were both really fun to coach because of it.
“And this one, there’s eerily uncanny similarities—it’s cool to watch.”
“This one” is reigning Heisman Trophy winner and USC quarterback Caleb Williams, whom Kingsbury is working with now. And if you think the Mahomes comps the Trojan quarterback is drawing are over the top, just know the one guy who’s coached both doesn’t shy away from that idea.
