Patrick Mahomes signed a massive 10-year, $450 million contract with the Chiefs over the offseason, per Spotrac. ESPN reported Mahomes’ deal can grow to as much as $503 million if the Chiefs quarterback hits certain incentives.
Given the sizable contract, Mahomes’ salary for the 2020 season is much lower than you may expect, but the Chiefs quarterback is not going to need to search for money underneath his couch cushions any time soon. According to Spotrac, Mahomes has a base salary of $825,000 this season but the cap hit is $10.8 million when you consider different factors including his signing bonus.
Mahomes and the Chiefs constructed his contract in such a way that would allow the team to re-sign other key players to keep the core group together in Kansas City. This means a major portion of Mahomes’ contract counts after the first few seasons but the quarterback’s deal jumps up to a $40.4 million cap hit in 2023. By the final year of the deal in 2031, Mahomes will have a $38 million salary along with a $52.4 million cap hit.
Mahomes on Contract Goals: ‘Keep Great Players Around Me & I wanted to Have Long-Term Security for My Family’
Mahomes may have signed a big deal but he kept his contract goals simple. The Chiefs quarterback emphasized that his two biggest desires were keeping the Chiefs’ championship roster intact while also making sure his family was taken care of for the foreseeable future.
“There were two things I said when we went into negotiations: I wanted to keep great players around me and I wanted to have long-term security for my family,” Mahomes told CBS Sports. “I certainly wasn’t thinking 10 years. I didn’t even know NFL contracts did that. With those two things in mind, the way we structured the deal and the way we did it, we’re going to have a lot of flexibility to keep great players around me and when you have great players around you, you’re going to have a great football team.”
Mahomes Signed the Most Lucrative Contract in Sports History
Mahomes’ new deal tops Angels outfielder Mike Trout’s contract as the most lucrative in sports. As ESPN’s Bill Barnwell pointed out, it is not exactly a fair comparison as Mahomes’ deal has $141 million in guaranteed money compared to the fully-guarenteed deal the MLB star signed.
“Comparing this deal to Mike Trout’s 12-year, $426.5 million contract isn’t realistic, since all of Trout’s deal is fully guaranteed, while ‘just’ $141.4 million of Mahomes’ deal is guaranteed, and that is for injury only,” Barnwell explained. “It’s more realistic to compare this to other quarterback contracts, with two recent deals coming to mind.”
Mahomes’ contract includes a number of creative ways for the quarterback to make money thanks to incentives. For example, Mahomes will earn a $1.25 million bonus if he wins another NFL MVP award, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“Starting in 2022, and for 10 years running, Patrick Mahomes has a $1.25 million incentive for winning AFC Championship game and a $1.25 million incentive for winning NFL MVP, per source,” Schefter tweeted. “That’s $25M of incentives over 10 years, taking value of his deal from $477M to $503M.”
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Patrick Mahomes’ Contract: How Much Money Is Chiefs QB’s 2020 Salary?