MIAMI — It's never to early for fans to worry about about contact extension for players such as Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones but Chiefs general manager Brett Veach says there's plenty of moving parts to consider before getting deals done with both stars.
“That's why you have the offseason to kind of deal with that,” Veach said. “We're just fortunate we got one more week of in-season play.”
On Tuesday club chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said getting a deal with with Mahomes was a priority, with the “right time sometime in the next 12 to 15 months” to finalize an extension.
Veach agrees signing Mahomes to a long-term deal is a priority but he's not ready to set a clock on negotiations.
“I don't know if I have a timeframe,” Veach said. “I'm sure there will be a lot of time and a lot of dialogue, and we'll handle that at the appropriate time.”
One stick wicket affecting a potential deal with Mahomes as well potential free agent defensive tackle Chris Jones is the ongoing negotiations between the league and NFL Players Association over a new collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA expires in March 2021. Hunt said he's optimistic a deal between the league and the players union can get done, but NFL commissioner didn't put a timetable on expectations Wednesday.
“We obviously have a lot of things that we would have to put in place, both the union and the NFL once we do reach an agreement,” Goodell explained, “and I think we're all sort of anxious to get to that place, but we're also going to be careful and make sure we get to the right place."
Veach said once the parameters of the new CBA are known and a deal is in place, it will help facilitate future contract negotiations. Teams, players and agents could be reluctant to rush into longer term deals this offseason not knowing for certain how the playing field may change after the 2020 season with new contract rules in place.
“You like to set yourself where that doesn't limit what you do but at the same time that there could be some back end verbiage and language that you have to deal with,” Veach said. “Again when all that stuff comes out and you get to kind of process, it will help the process on all ends.”
