Patrick Mahomes has inked the largest contract in sports history. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that the quarterback’s 10-year extension is worth up to $503MM. The deal includes $477MM in “guarantee mechanisms.” Mahomes has the ability to opt out of the deal if “the guarantee mechanisms aren’t exercised,” and the contract also includes a no-trade clause.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com explored those new “guarantee mechanisms,” noting that it’s “new terminology as far as NFL contracts are concerned.” Florio believes the deal includes rolling guarantees, and the Chiefs will have to make a commitment to their quarterback (a year out, per Rapoport) each offseason. If the organization decides they “don’t want to make the commitment for the next season,” then Mahomes will have the ability to hit free agency.
Mahomes is the first professional athlete to sign a deal worth half a billion dollars, and as Rapoport points out on Twitter, it’s the first time an NFL player has held the title of “highest-paid player in sports history.” Even Mahomes’ $477MM in “guarantee mechanisms” exceeds the 12-year, $426.5MM deal that Mike Trout signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2019. The $50.3MM average annual value tops Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard‘s $49MM AAV (part of a four-year, $196MM deal that will begin in 2021).
Matt Ryan previously held the NFL record for largest contract after inking a five-year, $150MM deal with the Falcons in 2018. Russell Wilson set the NFL’s new AAV mark last offseason after signing a four-year, $140MM deal with the Seahawks.
Good for him!
Great for him. Terrible for the Cowboys
there’s absolutely no comparison with the two quarterbacks bud… not even close.
No one said there was, but if you don’t think Dak’s price didn’t go up, you’ve lost your mind. I don’t think Dak is a franchise QB personally. If I were them, I’d let him play on the tag and then get another QB longterm
Agreed.
The problem with that line of thinking is “getting another long term QB” isn’t easy as proven by many teams not having guaranteed long term plans at the position. Even if they wanted a different quarterback, this offseason was the time to do it with Brady, Rivers, Newton, Winston, Mariota, Keenum, Bridgewater, Foles, the draft, and Dalton (who they signed) all available. Dallas (correctly) stuck with Dak, but there were an unusual amount of average-to-good replacements available.
Tell that to Dak Prescott
and im a cowboy fan.
It’s great for the Cowboys and the rest of the league. P Manning, Drew & Tom carried 32 franchises for 15+ years, onto the next greats.
They didn’t carry 32 franchises they carried 3, 4 if you count manning for both the colts and Broncos. Please explain further why you possibly think they carried every NFL franchise?
Sure look at the revenue during their careers. It went up roughly 10000%. TV, streaming, concessions, ticket sales et al.
Are you really saying that the Jags didn’t benefit from having PM in their division? Please. Same for the bumbling Jets, Fins, and Bills. Come playoffs, these cash numbers went higher.
Those QB’s clearly took the league to new revenue heights than ever before.
From a TB website:There were fewer than 1,000 people in line to buy Buccaneers tickets at 7 p.m. on TicketMaster’s website, according to screenshots on social media. More than 1,350 people were in line at 7:15 p.m. That number increased by 500 in 10 minutes before jumping to a total of 4,000 by 7:55 p.m. By 9 p.m. there were nearly 7,000 people in line to buy season tickets.
Ur statistics isn’t a cause wen there’s 1000 variables to 20 years of revenue, now u can say they impacted their market but the other 29 not as much . In reality sports is the only time sensitive show we watch tv is consumed in a night a week 10 shows u like
Are you saying fans in other cities didn’t pay top $ to see those guys? Sorry, they did.
No different than Bird and MJ handing it off to MJ to Kobe to Lebron to Curry for basketball. stars sell, simple as that.
It’s a story someone else can b that star in a second without a blink. U had years running to the tv for Tebow Vick manziel t o cam can go on but just as easy to replace with a different story the sport can make any stars by promoting them something baseball Cldnt figure out.
Good for him. Now can Florio explore new employment options where his name is never mentioned again.
This is honestly the most shocking sports contract in history. With the NFL precedents I thought Mahomes would get 6 years around 210 million. This blew all of our thoughts of money and years out of the water.
Going to be great. U gotta predict nfl looses about 15 -20 % of viewers this year with this newest anthem just the last straw along with the fact we have a election that destroyed ratings last go around but only for the year .Meaning the cap will decrease in nfl and nba next few years . Then watch players telling others to shut up and dribble.
Actually the Cap increased.
Did as has been the case most years . But u kno gets raised based on last years revenue right? Can’t predict this years revenue and it’s a split so thats how it works.
Yankees28 is right. The cap is based on the previous years revenue stream which is why it went up this year. However, if you read the articles, with the loss of at least 2 preseason games, lack of fans being able to attend games, the experts are predicting a severe loss of revenue that might cause the cap to fall next year by as much as $50MM per team.
Now I’m sure the NFL and NFLPA are working behind the scenes to make sure the cap doesn’t fall by that much or stays the same, but the reality is that loss of ticket sales for all the games, TV revenue for the loss of half of the preseason games, radio revenue loss for the games, plus countless other Losses are going to impact the salary cap next year.
$40-50MM per year for one player, if the cap goes down to even $160MM will decimate a team. Considering since the salary cap era started no team that has paid their top player more than 14.1% of their cap has won a Super Bowl, and now we’re looking at a player getting 25-30% of the cap! Good luck with that.
They said nascar viewership would go down after banning the confederate flag. It went up. I can’t predict what adding the song will do, but I like the song. I think most will too.
It’s only thing on tv and people talked abt it last few weeks and no one watched it before never got a rating and was front page. Football is the opposite and pissing off a lot of people isn’t smart it’s not about the quality of song stairway to heaven also wasn’t b a great song before every game.
The song won’t be the problem, the problem will be if the players stand for that and kneel for the anthem. How do you bring a country together if that’s what they do. Not rocket science.
What in the world does a 50 AAV for 1 person do to the salary cap? Seems like alot of other positions you cant fill.
Oh, we are about to find out
Imagine what Trubisky is gonna get now
the only comment here that matters – and i say that as someone who posted one of them.
cap hell. great player, but that’s mental.
Yep. Down the line it’s going to be Party Machines and the jobbers v the world. But as a Raider fan that still scares me lol
Yup! This is going to be a tough deal with limited cap space and should Mahomes face serious injuries.
So the previous high contract was worth $150MM, and this one could max out at a half billion dollars. I’d say that’s raising the bar.
Why can’t they simply make the entire contract public? They seem fine leaking much of it.
Crazy bucks. Great player, I look forward to watching him for years to come.
You can’t really judge the annual value of a football contract until afterwards. Also, not a chance he makes anywhere near the total reported amount. Good for mahomes, but another terrible day for journalism.
The deal includes $477MM in “guarantee mechanisms.” Mahomes has the ability to opt out of the deal if “the guarantee mechanisms aren’t exercised,”
He’s guaranteed 477 mill without even hitting the field, assuming the team doesn’t release him or something. Guaranteed money, roster bonuses,etc giving him 477 mill without playing for it is irresponsible to say the least.
What will Lamar Jackson’s deal look like if he wins a Super Bowl?!
He’s a guy who won’t last 10 yrs 2 hits and it’s a career first is a question second it’s over
Read some books. It will help you with the English language.
as a Chiefs fan couldn’t be happier. We have the next 12 years to be in the running for the Superbowl every year!!!!! Thanks Patrick
The price for everything at Arrowhead stadium will double but it was nice to thank him for that.
Until the cap hits become ridiculous in a couple yrs. His cap hit will be upwards of 40-50 million in like 5 yrs or so and while the cap generally increases yearly, it won’t increase that much to allow talent to surround him.
Thanks Brett Veach!
Does he deserve ALL of it?
There’s about $400 (in the area between $277K and $278K) that’s a little iffy, but the rest of it seems legit.
Man…Watson gonna get a big contract (not Mahomes money) after this. Gonna be bigger than would have been pre-Mahomes contract.
Got no issue with Patty’s contract.. but it sets his bar very very high.
Arod type. I mean you can compare him with Trout.. but trout wins the MVP like every year! Hope he embraces his good fortune. And uses it for good