Pat deal is 1000% special lol in every single way. Moving on from him in 2022? No matter how you try to down play it, that contract is amazing.
I mean, its purely from a theoretical standpoint and obviously would in no way happen. Barring some sort of like off-field catastrophe or a Joe Theisman-level injury, he'll be a Chief for at least probably 10-15 years.
But the point is that both the media and us fans look at some of these ungodly numbers that are published and all react to them. We get caught up in AAV and all these other contract metrics that, in the grand scheme of things, really don't matter.
The point is that a contract of that size and structure is like 75% written in pencil. They can just erase it, change it, tear it up, add to it, etc. as frequently as they want. If somehow Pat Mahomes becomes the next Aaron Hernandez and turns into a serial killer, its not like the Chiefs will have to pay him like $300M to be in prison. They can erase a gigantic amount of his contract and largely any point and time after the first like 3-4 years, and be on the hook for very little afterwards.
Like in pretty much all context, after about 2023, Mahomes is just playing with the Chiefs on a series of one year contracts, based on roster bonuses at the Chiefs discretion. They decide one year in advance to pick it up or not, and that becomes guaranteed for the following year. If they decline one, he becomes a FA the next year and the Chiefs don't owe him a dime more.
That's how a player like Mahomes can sign for like $5-10M a year more than literally every other QB. Sure, he's better than and deserves it, but like he also gave them a pretty sweet-heart contract from a structural standpoint. He probably could have commanded a LOT more in guaranteed money.
