KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Patrick Mahomes signed his record-breaking 10-year, $450 million contract extension in 2020, the inevitable question was when the Chiefs and their superstar quarterback would rework the deal.
Today is the answer.
Mahomes and the Chiefs have agreed on a restructured contract that will inject more money into the deal for 2023 through 2026. Although details of the deal are not yet known, the agreement reportedly will pay Mahomes between $208.1 million to $210.6 million over the course of four seasons. That total tops the $208 million promised by Baltimore to quarterback Lamar Jackson during the same timeframe.
The restructured contract was first reported by ESPN.
Mahomes will earn at least $52.025 million over the next four seasons. While that tops the average annual value (AAV) of Jackson’s contract over four years, Mahomes now ranks third in the league in AAV behind Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow ($55 million) and Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert ($52.5 million).
The $133.7 million guaranteed in the new deal ranks fifth among quarterbacks in money guaranteed at signing behind Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson ($230 million), Burrow ($146.51 million), Jackson ($135 million) and Herbert $133.74 million).
The guarantee for injury is a change in the terms of Mahomes’ original contract. The agreement signed in 2020 ensured that future seasons would become fully guaranteed as the contract went along. Until Monday, Mahomes had injury guarantees for his entire 2024 salary and roster bonuses ($37.95 million and his 2025 roster bonus ($38.9 million). Now all base salary and roster bonuses are guaranteed through 2026.
Prior to Monday’s restructuring of his groundbreaking contract, Mahomes was due $150.3 million during the course of the next four seasons. He already received a $12 million restructured signing bonus earlier this year for salary cap purposes, and his $2.5 million in bonus money for winning last year’s AFC Championship game and MVP award count toward this year’s salary cap.
That means Mahomes will at minimum have $43.3 million added to the deal over the course of the next four seasons.
Initial reports have championed this deal as not involving new money but rather advancing money from future years of the contract involving 2027 through 2031. While the deal purportedly still runs through 2031 for salary cap purposes, it appears the new agreement will trigger another restructuring after the 2026 season.
