Kansas City Chiefs: Three possible extension candidates
By John McCarty
Tyrann Mathieu – Safety
Tyrann Mathieu may be the heart and soul of the Chiefs defense, especially the secondary, and much like the previously mentioned Fisher, is scheduled to be entering the last year of his contract this offseason. It’s hard to imagine the Chiefs not wanting to ensure Mathieu is with the team for years to come. The question, what will Mathieu want in a new deal, and can the Chiefs do a deal?
The big issue, next season, the Chiefs safety is scheduled to be the highest-paid safety in the game with a cap hit of $19.733 million. That includes a non-guaranteed salary of $14.8 million. For a player that has made the contributions he has since he arrived, one would think he’d want a raise while after this season, as no money on his contract remains guaranteed. There’s motivation on both sides to get a deal done.
The question, what would a new contract look like?
- Again, I do a four-year contract for the safety
- $70 million contract ($17.5 million AAV per year)
- $16 million signing bonus/ $30 million total guaranteed
- $5 million 2021 salary
On this deal, the goal is to reduce Mathieu’s 2021 cap number but ensure the start defender still feels ‘the love’ from the organization. The $17.5 number would ensure Mathieu continues to maintain the highest AAV salary and will have the highest signing bonus at the position.
The Chiefs benefit greatly from this deal in that they receive a massive amount of cap relief in 2021, reducing his cap number $10 million, now putting the Chiefs just with this deal and the Fisher deal under the cap without getting really crazy or putting big money down the road on fringe players.