Sammy Watkins is mulling a pay cut to stay in Kansas City next season. (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins is having a career resurgence since taking his talents to Arrowhead Stadium. The 2014 fourth round overall pick signed a three-year, $48 million contract in 2018 after spending one year in Los Angeles with the Rams.
Reflecting over his complicated, yet fruitful career in the league, the 26-year-old acknowledged the road hasn’t been easy, but it’s helped him grow as a person and athlete.
“A lot of hard pain, suffering, but a lot of great moments,” Watkins said to NFL.com “To get here, I’ve went through a lot. I’ve sacrificed a lot. I’ve went through so many different phases of myself. I’ve lost myself, I’ve found myself. It’s a very special moment for me right now. It’s so surreal. I have went through a lot to get to this space right now.”
Former #Clemson WR Sammy Watkins asked last night at #SuperBowlLIV Opening Night about how his experience playing for the Tigers prepares him for the biggest stage in football: “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life going there.” @ClemsonFB @foxcarolinanews
Given that $21 million remains on his deal with a base salary of $13.75 million, Watkins admitted that Kansas City’s front office might approach him about taking a pay cut. If the Chiefs just decide to cut the former Clemson Tiger in the offseason, NFL.com reports they would save $14 million in cap space and $7 million in dead money. With a desire to continue working under the Andy Reid system, Watkins said he would consider a pay cut if that meant he could wear the red and gold for another season.
“I don’t want to say I will be (open to a pay cut). I don’t want to say I won’t,” . “I just think I’m a special player. I think I deserve all the things I deserve. If I’m at home and thinking about it, if I have to do it to pay Pat, I maybe will. That’s a guy that we should pay, and he needs to get paid. But you never know, that’s a decision I’d have to go through.”
There’s even a third option Watkins threw out that most hadn’t even contemplated:
“Or I might just take off a year after we win the Super Bowl, you never know.”
When Will Mahomes Sign His Extension?
Franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes could lift his first Lombardi Trophy Monday, bringing a second Super Bowl to Kansas City and their first in 50 years. The 24-year-old is also officially eligible for a contract extension at the conclusion of this season and there’s quite a lot of talk about when the Chiefs will finalize said deal. According to team Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, it could be at least a year until that’s completed.
“There will be a right time sometime in the next 12 to 15 months to extend Patrick, and when I say the right time, it will be right time both for the player and the club,” Hunt said Tuesday.
“I don’t want to say it necessarily has to be this offseason, but I will say that it’s a priority to get it done.
“I hope Patrick is here for his entire career, and that’s going to be our goal.”
Mahomes seems to share similar sentiments about making Kansas City his permanent home.
“The people are what really drew me to Kansas City, and I hope I get to play there the rest of my career,” Mahomes said during Super Bowl media availability, via Pro Football Talk. “The people and how they accept you, how they care about you more as a person than as a player, how much passion they have for the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s somewhere where I want to be for the rest of my career.”
Sounds like the relationship is mutually beneficial, it just now boils down to how much the Chiefs will spend to keep Mahomes in the City of Fountains until he’s ready to call it a career.