Chiefs, Trey Smith reach record deal hours before tag deadline
Kansas City and right guard Trey Smith are set to sign a four-year, $94 million deal that includes $70 million guaranteed, per sources.
The main storyline of the offseason has now come to an end as right guard Trey Smith is now set to be tied with the Kansas City Chiefs through the 2028 season. Just two hours before the deadline to get a franchise-tagged player signed to a long-term deal, reports came out that the Chiefs were making Smith the highest-paid guard in the NFL.
It appears Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report had it first, before ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported sources told him and Nate Taylor that the deal set to be signed is a four-year, $94 million deal that includes $70 million guaranteed.
Back in March, Kansas City placed the tag on Smith, which he quickly signed, guaranteeing him $23.4 million for the 2025 season. It appears that was the number Smith and his camp were shooting for on an Average Annual Value basis.
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Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles made left guard Landon Dickerson the highest-paid guard in the NFL with a four-year, $84 million deal, good for $21 million AAV. With Smith coming in at $23.5 million AAV, he has completely reset the guard market.
This comes on the heels of an offseason where Brett Veach and company extended Creed Humphrey to the tune of a four-year $72 million extension, which also reset the center market. Both he and Smith are now slated to protect Patrick Mahomes side-by-side over the next four seasons, through 2028.
The writing has been on the wall for this signing to come to fruition ever since the Chiefs placed the tag on Smith, as well as trading left guard Joe Thuney. Offloading Thuney’s contract and promoting 2024 second-rounder Kingsley Suamataia to his position on the depth chart was a clear indicator that they felt good about getting the deal done with Smith.
Even had Smith and Kansas City not come to terms, he was set to make more than six times what he had throughout his rookie contract, in one season. Coming out of Tennessee, the Chiefs drafted the 6-foot-6, 321-pound guard in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Despite a college career where he posted two first-team All-SEC and one second-team All-SEC campaigns, he was able to fall to the sixth round due to a medical condition. Early on in his career at Tennessee, Smith was diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs, which kept him off a lot of teams’ draft boards.
Smith has made good on Kansas City’s gamble, appearing the three Super Bowls and winning two. He has become a staple along the Chiefs’ offensive line, earning a reputation for one of the most fearsome run blockers in the league, which led to his first Pro Bowl honor in 2024.
Not to mention, he has started 67 of 68 games he could have appeared in when the Chiefs are not resting their starters in the last game of the season. Humphrey, drafted the same year, has appeared in all 68 and now Mahomes can depend on his two Pro Bowl interior linemen being there for the next several seasons to come.
