Patrick Mahomes takes one for the team
doubledragon
Posts: 23,269 ✭✭✭✭✭
Right out of the Brady playbook, impressive, kid wants to win championships.
$9,000,000 Pay Cut by Patrick Mahomes Shows He’s Walking in Shadow of Tom Brady
What makes a good captain and a visionary leader? It is the will to lead from the front and when the situation demands, take one for the team. Patrick Mahomes recently demonstrated why he is worthy of being called a true leader. Despite having won his second Super Bowl MVP and securing his second Lombardi Trophy, he is not content to rest on his laurels. Instead, the Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback has taken it upon himself to reshape the team’s roster and attempt to emulate a feat last achieved by Tom Brady’s New England Patriots, i.e. win consecutive Super Bowls.
To achieve this, Patrick Mahomes made the tough decision to take a significant pay cut for now, sacrificing millions of dollars for the sake of the team. The Kansas City Chiefs restructured their star quarterback’s contract, freeing up much-needed cap space to pursue new talent in free agency. It is this kind of selflessness that draws comparisons to legends like Tom Brady, who have put team success above personal gain time and time again.
Patrick Mahomes is taking one for the team
With free agency looming and the draft on the horizon, the Chiefs needed to clear some cap space. They turned to their leader, who they had signed to a then-record 10-year $450 million contract back in 2020. He answered the call without hesitation. Patrick Mahomes selflessly agreed to have $12 million of his 2023 roster bonus converted to a signing bonus, clearing up $10 million in cap space.
$9.6 million, to be precise, according to the reports from ESPN’s Field Yates. The Chiefs have distributed Patrick Mahomes’ salary burden over a few years, bringing his 2023 cap hit down from $49.3 million to $39.7 million.
With this move, Patrick Mahomes has registered his name with the NFL GOAT Tom Brady. But how?
Mahomes isn’t the only QB to undergo restructuring
It has been done before, especially during the tampering period and legal negotiation window of the free agency. Seven-time Super Bowl champion and recently retired Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, Tom Brady, restructured his one-year $25 million contract to a one-year $15 million in 2022, freeing up nearly $9 million to enable the Buccaneers to gather sufficient ammo in their arsenal.
More recently, this week, Cleveland Browns restructured the contract of their QB Deshaun Watson. The #12 pick of the 2017 NFL Draft, who became the highest guaranteed earner in the NFL with his $230 million five-year deal, agreed to get paid later, allowing the Browns to free up around $36 million in cap room.
Out of $45,000,000 Salary, Taxes Take Away Huge Chunk of Patrick Mahomes’ Historical Half a Billion Dollar Contract
Even with the $9.6 million freed up through Patrick Mahomes’ selfless decision, the franchise cap space is effectively only $13.6 million in the green. That still doesn’t reflect the contract of KC’s recent acquisition from the San Francisco 49ers, defensive end, Charles Omenihu.
Besides Omenihu, the AFC West franchise also roped in free agent OT from Jacksonville, Jawaan Taylor, and re-signed linebacker Tershawn Wharton. However, with JuJu Smith-Schuster joining the New England Patriots, the Chiefs have to provide some aid to the returning receiving group comprising Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, and Kadarius Toney. Maybe some of that Mahomes money will go towards getting a veteran wideout wearing red next season.
Comments
Its not exactly selfless to just convert salary to a signing bonus which is generally better for the player anyways. Its a pretty standard move to circumvent the salary cap. Its not like he gave the money back and said lower my salary
Wisconsin 2-6 against the SEC since 2007
No comment.
ETA: changed my mind. Keep reading
this is just kicking the can down the road. its not like he is actually reducing his salary
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I’m expecting a number 1 type receiver signing.
In all seriousness, I felt like this article was poorly written and kind of laughable. I did a search, found the author. I guess tons of people are writing online content, but words matter. This was poorly done. I feel as though I put more effort into the wording of my comments here than this guy did in the article. Or maybe it's a joke? "tough decision"? "significant pay cut"? Lol
Showtime you’re correct it’s all overblown hype from that writer.
That’s why I just basically ignored it.
Mahomes could play for free and still make all the money he wants just from product endorsements so as the guy from Josey wales said don’t p@&@ down my back and tell me it’s raining.
What is real is mahomes commitment to winning. 👍
I think the point of the article was about Mahomes commitment to wanting to win championships and the similarity to what Brady did. Here's another arficle from 2021 about the same thing.
Patrick Mahomes restructures deal: Why this season won't be the only time Chiefs' megastar keeps roster intact
Patrick Mahomes missed a golden opportunity to beat Tom Brady in Super Bowl LV and further cement his own career trajectory as the greatest player to ever suit up on a football field. Despite Mahomes' unsuccessful effort to dethrone Brady in Raymond James Stadium, the Kansas City QB did take a page out of Brady's playbook that helped solidify Brady's GOAT status over the past two decades.
In an unsurprising move -- one that even the casual salary cap observer should have seen coming -- Mahomes restructured his deal to convert a $21.7 million roster bonus into a signing bonus. This saved Kansas City $17.4 million in salary cap space, a much-needed step to get the Chiefs under the salary cap and ensure the franchise's ability to make moves in free agency next week.
The Chiefs are under the salary cap by $13.02 million (per numbers calculated by Over The Cap), thanks to Mahomes converting his roster bonus into a signing bonus. When Mahomes signed his 10-year, $450 million extension last offseason, the Chiefs quarterback set up the contract where he could turn a roster bonus into a signing bonus every offseason -- saving Kansas City a significant amount of salary cap space so general manager Brett Veach can keep the core of the back-to-back AFC championship roster intact.
This season won't be the last time Mahomes agrees to restructure his deal over the life of the contract. His 2022 roster bonus of $27.4 million is already guaranteed (which occurred when he signed his extension), meaning the Chiefs can save approximately $22 million in salary cap space when the Mahomes restructure is filed to the league. Kansas City will already have a significant amount of cap space freed up for 2022 (with even more coming due to the revenue from the upcoming television contracts kicking in). The restructure will make the Chiefs major players in free agency and allow the front office -- and Mahomes -- to recruit star players to become part of a roster that is tied for the most wins in the NFL over the past three years.
Mahomes has a clause in his contract that his 2023 salary and bonuses become guaranteed on the third day of the 2021 league year. On the third day of the 2022 league year, his 2024 salary and bonuses become guaranteed and his 2025 roster bonus of $38.9 million becomes guaranteed on the third day of the 2023 league year. After an "off year" in 2024, Mahomes' roster bonus in all subsequent years becomes official on the third day of the previous league year (2026 roster bonus official in 2025 league year, etc.), which will occur throughout the remainder of his contract.
The Chiefs can save significant amounts of cap space just by restructuring the roster bonus and turning it into a signing bonus every season. Just take a look at Mahomes' roster bonuses every year in a contract that lasts until the 2031 season.
MAHOMES' CONTRACT YEAR 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Roster Bonus
$21,716,905
$27,400,000
$34,400,000
$34,900,000
$38,900,000
$38,900,000
MAHOMES' CONTRACT YEAR
2027 2028 2029 2030 2031
Roster Bonus $49,400,000
$30,900,000
$23,900,000 $22,900,000
$13,900,000
There's a significant amount of salary cap space to be saved by converting those roster bonuses, giving the Chiefs every opportunity to build around Mahomes while he carries the richest contract in NFL history. Kansas City needs to improve its offensive line this offseason following the release of Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz -- and has an excellent chance to become a player in a suddenly wide-open offensive line market thanks to the many releases around the league as teams are trying to get under the $182.5 million salary cap. Thank Mahomes for making sure he remains upright in 2021.
Mahomes and the Chiefs structured his record-setting contract this way so the franchise can compete for Super Bowls over the life of the deal. This contract won't hinder the Chiefs with the yearly restructures anchored by Mahomes as they will continue to get excellent players on their roster with their superstar quarterback.
Get used to the restructures and the Chiefs winning year after year. This strategy of contract reworking helped Brady win seven Super Bowls -- and will help Mahomes win multiple championships in the years to come.
The point of the story seems to be that Mahomes is "sacrificing" something for the team when in truth he's just getting his money now instead of spread weekly throughout the season. It might sound like a noble gesture but it's really just Mahomes being part of a book-keeping trick. The article mentioning the "significant pay cut" taken by Mahomes paints a picture of an athlete who swallows his pride as other players now might make more money than him(on paper).
He's a great player who doesn't really need fluff articles like this.
....
Yes, the article was inaccurate. But we all know that @doubledragon has a Patrick Mahomes agenda