jshawaii22 wrote:It is a very, very, friendly team deal. Any time you can secure your star for 10 (it's actually 12) years under your team control, with op-outs after year #5 to the end, that in itself is incredibly team friendly and allows the Chiefs to plan for a decade of team cap space, free agent signings and control of the roster far easier then teams with their stars in 3-4 year deals (like Russell).
I remember, at least 2 months ahead of the last Russell contract, as some of the most (we were) unhappy, unrest, a lot of negative talk all over Russell's "pay me or I won't sign any deal" -- is that "team friendly" from their QB? Russell's wife saying how she would love to live in New York... you see any of that in Patrick's dealing with the Chief's? I don't. We have 2-3 more of these with Russell while the Chiefs have ZERO new contracts to worry about.
Mahomes went "TB12" with his contract, as he would rather be a dynasty then worry only about being the highest paid.
Besides the mental side of the last contract, Russell got 100m give or take up front for 4 years, while Patrick got 62m for 10(!!!!) years with team op-outs throughout.
This has NOTHING to do with Russell's accomplishments and what he's brought to the team, the City, etc. What he does on the field is boggling. This is about 2 players choosing different paths in contract negotiations going forward. One being very team friendly and or not.
I agree that controlling him for 12 years is a huge benefit and having no dead money after year 4, but those are the only things that we know for sure are team friendly. The only thing that fans should really care about in these contracts are cap hits and Mahomes cap hit in year 4 of his deal is more than RW’s. Comparing him to TB is not a good comparison. Mahomes’ extension is for 45 mil/year, 10 mil more than RW. TB took team friendly deals in terms of cap hit. The Chiefs have him, after his rookie contract with cap hit of 31 and then 42 million. That is not team friendly. After that the cap hits range from 40 mil to 59 mil/year. Again this is not team friendly. I’m not saying he’s not worth it, but to spin this like he took less money to stay in KC would be disingenuous. Could he have been paid more on the open market in 2 years? Probably, but RW could have as well. He became the highest paid QB by a lot. Including his 2 years left on his rookie deal he is averaging 40-45 mil/year. That’s like a 15% increase from RW’s contract, again not ‘Team Friendly.’ When TB was taking his team friendly deals his cap hits were like 10th or 12th in the league, Mahome’s will be the highest cap hits for all but two or three years of his contract.