Chiefs will begin contract talks with Patrick Mahomes this summer

[KC Wolf]

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The Chiefs want to sign Patrick Mahomes to a long-term contract sooner than later. They thus will begin contract talks with Mahomes’ agent sooner than later.

“The negotiations are something we’ll be getting into this summer,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said on a Facebook Live event with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “But what he has said and what we’ve said, both sides, is he wants to be a Kansas City Chief for life, and that’s our mentality as well. We want him to play his entire career in Kansas City, and that’s what we’re going to be shooting for.”

Mahomes is entering the fourth year of his rookie deal, set to count $5.3 million against the salary cap with an $825,000 base salary. It is a safe bet the quarterback will become the league’s highest-paid player when the deal is signed.

The only question is: When does it get done?

Mahomes, 24, won league MVP honors in his first season as a starter in 2018 and capped last season with Super Bowl MVP honors. In only 31 games as a starter, Mahomes has a 24-7 record, a Super Bowl ring, 9,412 passing yards, 76 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

“In terms of special qualities, the thing that really struck me in 2018, the first year that he became a full-time starter for us, was his leadership ability,” Hunt said. “We knew he had these special physical gifts. We had seen him on the practice field. We’d seen the no-look throws. We had seen the 70-yard bombs, all that stuff. I’m not sure we had seen the left-handed throw but maybe. But anyhow, we knew we had that. But the pleasant surprise was what a great leader he was at age 23. An NFL locker room is a very difficult place to come into as a young player and lead, but it was very evident that the entire team was looking up to him in his first year as a starter, and of course, that carried over into this past season.

“He has a tremendous amount of humility going back to what I said about leadership qualities. So he’s very humble on one hand and very competitive on the other and his teammates all respect him and want to play for him and with him.”