Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) exchange pleasantries after the game on Thanksgiving of 2025. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
A new bar has been set in the NFL.
Currently, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is the highest-paid NFL quarterback in terms of average annual value (AAV). He is on a four-year, $240 million contract, making him the only NFL quarterback to earn at least $60 million a year … for now.
On Wednesday ESPN reported that the Kansas City Chiefs have restructured the contract of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The three-time Super Bowl MVP will start receiving the new money for the 2027 season as part of a deal averaging $64 million per year.
Prescott was the only NFL player with an AAV reaching $60 million. Ten other quarterbacks — Matthew Stafford, Jordan Love, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen, Jared Goff, Brock Purdy, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts — earn at least $50 million a year.
It is not the first time Mahomes has reset the market.
After he signed a four-year, $16.4 million rookie deal, Mahomes signed a 10-year, $450 million contract in 2020. It is the longest — and the one that represented the highest total value — of all NFL contracts.
As part of his new contract, the Chiefs have added two years to the deal, keeping him with the team through the 2033 season at a value of $504.75 million. That sum makes it the first NFL contract worth more than a half-billion dollars.
The new money on the deal is worth $239.05 million.
Mahomes’ raise indicates the confidence the Chiefs have in him despite the fact that he is coming back from season-ending torn anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in his knee.
The early reports of his recovery from reconstructive surgery, though, have been positive.
During both organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamp, which concludes on Thursday, Mahomes has been practicing.
He has participated in seven-on-seven drills but not 11-on-11 action during the non-contact practices.
“The next step will be getting with team, getting under center,” Mahomes said. “We’ll have to progress to that, and then it’ll be going out there and being live and with the guys, and then eventually you get (to) the game.”
With Mahomes already practicing, most project that he will be the starter when the Chiefs kick off their season on Monday, Sept. 14 against the rival Denver Broncos.
But whether Mahomes plays in Week One or not, the Chiefs have made a statement that he will be their quarterback well past this decade.
“Patrick has become one of the most iconic, beloved sports figures of all time,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told ESPN. “He has helped lead our franchise to five Super Bowl appearances and three championships. He has been instrumental in shaping the Chiefs brand and putting Kansas City on the world stage, and on top of it all, he has been an outstanding role model in the community. Patrick is a generational talent and an elite human being, and I’m so excited he will continue to lead our team into the future.”