Nate Taylor: Chiefs plan to extend Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith before season begins

[wazu]

New story. In the next month, the Chiefs hope to extend Creed Humphrey & Trey Smith, keeping a major part of the roster's core intact.

“It’s been fun to be able to do this with him throughout the past 3 years & hopefully many more.” https://t.co/bGFD0GurgV

— Nate Taylor (@ByNateTaylor) August 5, 2024

Throughout the next month — before the season opener Sept. 5 against the Baltimore Ravens — the Chiefs will attempt to sign Humphrey and Smith to lucrative contract extensions, a feat that Veach has yet to achieve this time of the year in the previous six seasons during his tenure.

“Your hope is that everybody gets paid,” Mahomes said. “I tell Veach all the time: ‘You draft too well.’ It’s a good problem to have. I’m excited for those guys and it all gets handled in the right way. The hope is to keep this core together. I’ll have that flexibility in my contract to help get them some money as much as possible.”

Along with Humphrey and Smith, the Chiefs also want to sign linebacker Nick Bolton (entering the last year of his rookie contract) and kicker Harrison Butker (entering the final year of his contract) to multiyear extensions.

[Hoover]

Surprised at Smith, but I trust Veach and I get it.

You could probably tag Butker if you really needed to.

[tmax63]

I'd offer 5yr/75M with close to 50M guaranteed but it's not my money.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by BWillie

But you do. You WANT a Top center but you definitely DO NOT want to pay them like it ESPECIALLY when you play how we play. If we do sign these two we better start QB sneaking again and running from under center on 3rd and short and 4th and short otherwise you are paying a premium on something that you don't even use to its fullest.

Nah, not with this skyrocketing salary cap. And especially not with the highest paid player on the team willing and able to restructure just to keep quality players around him.

[TomBarndtsTwin]

Originally Posted by -King-

Kelce was making 15 when he retired. The highest active is at 13.5 per. Maybe Creed would ask for less than the Kelce deal but I don't know if he would. I think 15 is where negotiations begin.

The last big center contract to come down is Frank Ragnow with the Lions.

4 years, 54 million, 28 million guaranteed. That was prior to the 2023 season.


I think to get Creed done, you'd be looking at 4 for 64 with 35 million gtd. I'm sure the Chiefs would rather do 5 for 75 and 35 gtd. but don't know if Creed's agent would do that? He's young, cap going up, etc. I'm sure he'd like his guy to hit FA again a year sooner than later.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by TomBarndtsTwin

The last big center contract to come down is Frank Ragnow with the Lions.

4 years, 54 million, 28 million guaranteed. That was prior to the 2023 season.


I think to get Creed done, you'd be looking at 4 for 64 with 35 million gtd. I'm sure the Chiefs would rather do 5 for 75 and 35 gtd. but don't know if Creed's agent would do that? He's young, cap going up, etc. I'm sure he'd like his guy to hit FA again a year sooner than later.

What if you guarantee $50 million of it? Put $30 million of that into a signing bonus?

5/75 w/ $6 million/season in pro-rated cap. Base salaries at $5 million, 7, 9, 10, 14 with the first 2 years fully guaranteed and the 3rd fully guaranteed for injury (which makes it an effective guarantee because you're not going to cut him for performance after 2 and take that kind of massive accelerated signing bonus hit.

Cap charges at:

2025: $11 million
26: $13
27: $15
28: $16
29: $20

The only real money he may not see is that final year at $14 million. Gives him 4/$61 in almost certain pay.

[Direckshun]

I worry about our cap space…

But this make sense obviously because the most important person in professional sports is Patrick Mahomes. They’re young, they set Super Bowl standards in the locker room, they’re both durable.

I don’t know what this means for Bolton. But I know what his means for Thuney.

[KSCHIEF]

No reason to worry about our cap space. We are actually in good shape with the cap. All our biggest contracts are guys that produce. In reality you can pay 5-6 guys big money on any team (depending on position value of the players you choose). Look at SF -- Not paying a QB allows them to pay RB, LT, WR, TE, MLB, CB. They obviously benefit that RB, MLB, TE are all reasonable deals versus the price of QB, WR, LT.

Let's say we can reasonably pay 5-6 top contracts on our team. Right now that is:

Mahomes
Chris Jones
Kelce
Thuney
Jawaan Taylor
Justin Reid

If we extend guys now the real cap hits don't start until 2026. They are already under contract in '24 and usually the first year of a new deal isn't crazy against the cap. In 2026 our top paid guys would be:

Mahomes
Creed
Bolton
McDuffie
Trey Smith
Chris Jones???

If we go down this road, it really means we think Kelce is retiring in 2 seasons, Jawaan Taylor is a cap casualty, and mayyyybe CJ in 2-3 seasons is done too.

[PatMahomesIsGod]

Article says “hope to keep”.

It’s just a fluff piece with respect to Trey. He’s priced out of our market.

[DRM08]

Would be surprising if they keep Trey Smith.

[Mecca]

Trey Smith is gonna get bank so if we pay both of them you can say bye to Joe Thuney and I do think the saving at LT is part of why this can happen.

[wazu]

We've got Thuney under contract through 2025. After that he's 34. He's been great but odds of the Chiefs shelling out another contract for him already seemed low unless it's discounted for age.

[warpaint*]

"Hope to extend"

They're both players we'd like to keep - the real answer as to whether it's a good idea is in what the contracts would necessarily be to get it done.

The Chiefs seem to make the right decision more often than not whatever that is in this instance.

[ThrobProng]

Originally Posted by KSCHIEF

If we go down this road, it really means we think Kelce is retiring in 2 seasons, Jawaan Taylor is a cap casualty, and mayyyybe CJ in 2-3 seasons is done too.

It's not unreasonable to assume all of those things are true.

[cabletech94]

Originally Posted by wazu

We've got Thuney under contract through 2025. After that he's 34. He's been great but odds of the Chiefs shelling out another contract for him already seemed low unless it's discounted for age.

Exactly this. We drafted thuneys replacement this year (probably). Get these two long term, draft another fatty next year. Veach isn’t gonna let a line ruin a Super Bowl run like the Tampa SB. (Shitty injuries and all).

[Chief Roundup]

Big difference between "plan to" and "hope to".