Patrick Mahomes: I want to stay in Kansas City, contract is handled by other people

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 3, 2020, 9:20 AM EST
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Patrick Mahomes is heading into the offseason thinking about football, not contract negotiations.

Mahomes was asked this morning about his expectations for a new contract, which his agent and the Chiefs are likely to be negotiating over the offseason. Mahomes said that’s just not on his radar.

“That’s stuff that’s handled with other people,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, I want to be in Kansas City a long time. I want to win a lot of football games.”

Mahomes’ agent, Leigh Steinberg, will certainly spend plenty of time talking with the Chiefs’ front office this offseason, and Mahomes is likely to land the biggest contract in NFL history. But he says he isn’t going to let that change his approach to the offseason, or take his focus off being back at the Super Bowl next year.

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28 responses to “Patrick Mahomes: I want to stay in Kansas City, contract is handled by other people”

  1. It will be interesting to see what happens with KC next year. I have a feeling contract demands and free agency are not going to do good things to the team.

  3. Every team faces this dilemma. The salary cap is designed to level the playing field. His contract will push several talented players out. There’s no way to avoid it.

  5. Two ways this can go:

    Take all the money you can get and see how the talent erodes around you
    Hometown discount it in order to win more rings.

    Pretty much comes down to how much you trust the management of your team, and how they’d spend the $$$ they’d save on a discount….

  6. He will land the biggest contract in history, and then the supporting cast will slowly be impossible to maintain, and the inevitable finger-pointing will ensue.

    Fast-forward to Mahomes at age 30, in mid-career crisis, begging for the team to supply him with some more “talent“ while his “window” is still open…

    This thing writes itself.

  7. There are two options Mahomes can go too.Either A take 30 million a year and leave money on the table for the team to pick up free agents and keep valuable players on the team and possibly make the Chiefs into a Dynasty or B take the max and run into cap situations with the team and possibly hurt the team from winning multiple Superbowls. I’m not a Chiefs fan but hope Mahomes takes option A

  9. Its cool he’s saying he lets other people deal with the business side, but his input is vital. Taking 35m a year instead of going for 40+ is probably the difference between keeping one of your offensive lineman and not. He needs to tell his agent which route he wants to go. If I’m him, after watching Brady do what he did, I demand the 40m+ per year and tell KC I’ll take small pay cuts year by year once they tell me where that money is going if I do so.

  10. I mean, giving him a massive contract should be fine if the Chiefs continue to draft well. It shouldn’t be on him to take less money to fix their mistakes in the draft. Mahomes is absolutely worth that kind of contract and any team in the league would wet themselves to have a chance to give it to him.

  11. Sure is nice listening to humble players (Mahomes, Wilson, Brady) rather than the egotistical ones that haven’t won anything (Newton, Prescott)

  12. I think Mahomes is a smart kid. There’s 100% chance he can be the highest paid QB and KC will be more than willing to pay. Of course obviously, he’ll lost talent elsewhere on the roster.

    But if he takes a little less (like Brady), Mahomes gets a chance to become the GOAT. He’s only 24 years old, just won his 1st SB ring. There are many times when KC fell behind or got into tough situations and Mahomes never backed down or gave up. The guy is a winner, period. Other young QBs disappear in those situations, while Mahomes stepped up.

  13. I wonder how many of these people talking “hometown discount” would be willing to take less at their jobs so their company could hire other more talented staff to reach their company goal…

    You’d probably want fair market value for what you bring to the table, right?

  15. Stiller43 says:
    February 3, 2020 at 11:05 am
    I wonder how many of these people talking “hometown discount” would be willing to take less at their jobs so their company could hire other more talented staff to reach their company goal…

    You’d probably want fair market value for what you bring to the table, right?

    ———

    I’m pretty sure the difference between $30M or $40M a year won’t have a huge impact on this guy’s lifestyle. In fact, he could easily make up that difference in endorsements.

  16. Please stop with the GOAT talk. Let’s just enjoy a good kid who is a great QB and has the chance to be special if he keeps it up over the next 15 years. I’m happy for him to win his first SB, and hopefully there are more to come, but it is inane to compare him to Tom Brady at this point in his young career.
    I want to see how he does once the salary cap reality sets in and he’s no longer on his rookie deal. They can’t keep all the talent they currently have on the roster, especially offensively. The Hill – Kelce combo is really tough to stop, especially with a great O line. If one of those players leaves, or the line weakens, Mahomes will find it a lot tougher.
    I believe he will succeed, but this is the part of the game that will absolutely present challenges for him so rather than putting him on a pedestal let’s just watch his next 5 years and see how he does. He’s a great kid, and should be the face of the NFL. And he also affirms that being a great QB means you have to throw, not just run, no matter what the NFL tried to make you believe this year.

  17. Mahommes appears to be the real deal on and off the field. He’s mature when he speaks. He’s genuine. He has a chance at a legendary career.

  18. Biggest contract in NFL history means the team is destroyed to pay it. If Mahomes wants to win he will do what Brady did and let the team build.

  20. Stiller43 says:
    February 3, 2020 at 11:05 am
    I wonder how many of these people talking “hometown discount” would be willing to take less at their jobs so their company could hire other more talented staff to reach their company goal…

    You’d probably want fair market value for what you bring to the table, right

    —-

    There is a big difference here.

    taking a ” hometown discount” literally would still mean making more money per year that he will ever need.

    In all honestly, making 20 million or 40 million per year will really have VERY little if any impact on the day to day life of a player. everything you can do with 40m, you can do with 20m. not to mention that fact that he will prob earn 10+ a year in endorsements.

    with that said, I don’t blame guys for maxing it out, and KC certainly could still win if he does that,but it will be much easier if he leaves some money on the table.

  21. Stiller43 says:
    February 3, 2020 at 11:05 am
    I wonder how many of these people talking “hometown discount” would be willing to take less at their jobs so their company could hire other more talented staff to reach their company goal…

    You’d probably want fair market value for what you bring to the table, right?

    ———-

    Well, if means take $25-30 mil per year vs $35-40mil. Then yes, I’d be MORE than happy to take the paycut if it envolved adding more talented players next to me.

    Your comment is meaningless since this cannot compare to normal jobs. No, I wouldn’t take $60k instead of $100k at a normal management job. What good does that do for you and the company?

  23. The Chiefs will hamstring their future when they give him a ridiculous contract that he has obviously earned!

  24. That’s what the draft is for. A lot of teams have won the Super Bowl while being well below the Salary cap. Payroll was a factor in the decisions to trade Alex Smith and release Jamaal Charles, Justin Houston and Eric Berry (although the Chiefs still had to eat a lot of his contract). The Chiefs probably would NOT have won the SB if they had been able to KEEP all of those guys. It happens to almost every team almost every year.

    The bottom line is that Mahomes has earned that money and he deserves a big payday. The Chiefs will have to draft well if they want to have a chance to stay on top. I DO think he will stay in KC if the difference in offers from other teams is small. He seems like THAT kind of guy, but he has a right to do what he thinks is best for himself and is future family.

  25. Chiefs and Mahomes share the same goal, which is to win. They’ll work out a deal which will be mutually beneficial and continue to win. The endorsement deals are likely flooding in, so the guy is going to make a ton of money, regardless of what he gets in a new deal.

  26. I’d like to see these types of players tie their wage to the salary cap availability and the amount their team spends. For example, take $25 mil max if the team spends 90% of cap, with wages rising if the team does not. It leaves room to sign other players, but pays the man if the team gets stupid and tries to go cheap. So, let’s say you take $25 mil and you’re on the Dolphins. Dolphins don’t spend that $89 mil in cap space? Then I’ll be taking the remainder in my paycheck this year, and not the owner.

  27. Bad news for KC, if he’s leaving it all up to his agent. The agent’s obligation is to squeeze every last dollar for his client. Mahomes is an employee, not management. He can let management worry about the cap. Saying its all up to his agent is also a convenient way to “blame” other parties if they cannot agree on a number. “Hey, my agent did his best but we couldn’t agree on a number…”.

  28. While realizing that the NFL is very much an “independent contractor” model for pay, I hope the affinity that Mahomes has for his teammates and the burning desire he possesses to win will make him and his agent sit down and really think through a strategy where he gets paid, possibly in some deferred compensation to continue long after he retires, that keeps his cap number lower so the Chiefs don’t go the Aaron Rogers route and gut their team after a three year window of possible championships. If we look back and all we get out of this remarkable talent is two AFC title game appearances and one Super Bowl win, we won’t have maximized him or come close to knocking off the dynasties of the past, which is what I hope the franchise’s ultimate goal is. KC is a small market, and I know there is some bias out there at the NFL corporate level–but if the Chiefs are smart the corporation of the NFL won’t be able to stop them from getting at least 3 or 4 Lombardi trophies in the next decade.

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