The Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes agreed Wednesday to a reworked contract that adds two years to his existing deal, pushes the total value to $504.75 million through the 2033 season and makes it the first contract in the history of the National Football League to exceed half a billion dollars.
The new money on the deal is worth $239.05 million.
Beginning in 2027, the contract averages $64 million per year, a new NFL record for average annual value, surpassing Dak Prescott's $60 million, with all $504.75 million becoming guaranteed through contract mechanisms.
Mahomes can earn up to $522.25 million with incentives and escalators.
This is the third time in six years that the Chiefs and Mahomes have reset the quarterback market.
The deal was finalized by GM Brett Veach and Equity Sports CEO Chris Cabott. Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport reported the terms.
"This is a landmark deal for a once-in-a-lifetime player," Veach said. "Patrick has grown into one of the most prolific quarterbacks to ever play the game, and to add to that, he's changed the culture of our building and has led us in the most successful era in our franchise's history."
Mahomes, who turns 31 in September, will be under contract in Kansas City through his age-38 season. He is the only player in the NFL signed through 2033.
The contract covers one of the stranger periods in his career, it arrives following the first losing season of his professional life, while he is rehabbing a torn ACL and LCL from December, and before anyone knows for certain whether he will be ready for Week 1 against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.
The Career That Warranted Half A Billion Dollars
The argument for paying Mahomes $504.75 million is the argument of his career statistics and his championship record combined, which together produce a profile that has no comparable in modern NFL history.
He has a 95-31 regular season record. He is 17-4 in the playoffs. He has three Super Bowl championships, won in 2020, 2023 and 2024, and has appeared in five Super Bowls in seven full seasons as a starter.
He has two NFL MVP awards. His career passer rating of 100.8 is the highest in NFL history. His 285.2 passing yards per game is the highest average in NFL history.
When Mahomes joined the Chiefs as the tenth overall pick in the 2017 draft, the franchise had made the playoffs twice in the previous decade and had not won a Super Bowl since January 1970.
Mahomes has taken them to five Super Bowls since 2020. They have won three of them. The Kansas City Chiefs are the most successful franchise in professional football during his tenure.
"We have so much more to do," Mahomes said in a statement. "Let's go out and do it. Let's go and win some more."
The Contract History That Put This In Context
Three times in six years, the Chiefs and Mahomes have rebuilt his contract and in doing so rebuilt the quarterback market for everyone.
The 2020 deal, a ten-year, $450 million extension that was, at the time, the largest contract in the history of professional sports by total value, established a ceiling that the rest of the market spent the following four years catching up to.
Deshaun Watson's fully guaranteed $230 million deal, Joe Burrow's $275 million extension, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, the quarterback market moved upward steadily and quickly in the years after Mahomes set the floor.
The 2023 restructure adjusted the payment schedule to keep Mahomes closer to market value in the near term.
The 2026 extension, two more years, $239 million in new money, $64 million average annual value starting in 2027, closes the gap between his compensation and the market he helped create, while extending the commitment to a player the Chiefs believe will continue to be worth that investment through 2033.
The total new money committed to Mahomes from 2022 through 2033 is $689.05 million.
His total career earnings, between what he has already received and what this contract guarantees, will exceed $730 million by 2033.
Matthew Stafford currently holds the career earnings record among NFL quarterbacks at $408 million. Mahomes will nearly double that by the time this contract concludes.
The Injury He Is Coming Back From
The contract was signed while Mahomes is rehabilitating the most serious injury of his career.
On December 14, 2025, the Chiefs were playing the Los Angeles Chargers when Mahomes planted his left knee awkwardly and tore his ACL and LCL simultaneously, a double ligament injury that required surgery the following day and ended his season.
It was the first time he had ever failed to finish an NFL season.
The 2025 Chiefs finished 6-11, the first losing season of the Andy Reid era in Kansas City and the first time since 2012 that Kansas City had missed the playoffs.
The combination of a season-ending injury and a franchise's worst record in a decade is the specific context in which the Chiefs chose to restructure his contract and commit more than half a billion dollars to their quarterback.
The reasoning is not hard to follow. Mahomes with a healthy knee has led the Chiefs to five Super Bowls in seven years.
The 2025 season without a healthy Mahomes produced a 6-11 record. The causal relationship between Mahomes's health and the Chiefs' success is documented in 95 regular season wins, three Lombardi Trophies and the franchise's transformation from a middling AFC team into the most dominant dynasty of the modern NFL era.
He has progressed to 7-on-7 drills during the offseason program. The Chiefs remain optimistic about Week 1. The half-billion dollar contract says they share his confidence in the return.