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Trey Smith and the Chiefs just made the cutoff for a new deal.
The offensive lineman–who was one of just two players to have a franchise tag placed on him this offseason–agreed to a four-year, $94 million deal with $70 million guaranteed, according to ESPN. The deal came roughly two hours before the 4 p.m. ET deadline.
Smith’s contract is the highest average annual salary and the most guaranteed money ever given to an NFL guard. Along with Creed Humphrey, who is on a four-year, $72 million deal, the Chiefs now have the highest-paid guard and center in the NFL.
Smith and Tee Higgins were the two players to be tagged, the lowest in 31 years, with Higgins agreeing to a four-year, $115 million deal in March.
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach previously said extending Smith was a priority to the organization and was aiming to finalize a new contract before the NFL Draft in April.
“Hopefully, we get that done,” Veach said at the NFL Draft Combine in March. “There’s no lack of interest or will or desire on our end…There’s no secret there that we’d like to get Trey locked up.”
Just 25, Smith was selected by the Chiefs in the sixth round of the 2021 Draft and has been extremely durable throughout his career. He’s started in every one of the 67 games he’s appeared in, missing just one game in four seasons. In 2024, he was named to his first Pro Bowl after allowing just 1.5 sacks on Patrick Mahomes, a career-low.
Smith didn’t attend the team’s OTAs in March, but appeared for a mandatory minicamp in June. He’s a critical piece of a team that lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles partially due to its offensive line play.
The franchise tag is a tool that allows NFL teams to retain their top players without losing them in free agency. A tagged player receives a one-year contract and has until July 15 to agree to a long-term deal; otherwise the player will play on a one-year deal, according to NFL rules. A player can be tagged up to three times in their career. The value of a tag varies by position and the type of tag used.
The tag has three applications: exclusive, non-exclusive, and transition. Exclusive tags prevent a player from seeking an offer sheet from another team, while non-exclusive, the most common tag, allows players to seek offer sheets from other teams. The tagging team has the right to match any offer sheet, and would receive two first-round picks as compensation if the player leaves. The transition tag is similar to the non-exclusive tag, but comes with a smaller salary and no draft compensation.
If Smith and the Chiefs didn’t agree to a new deal on Tuesday, he would have played the 2025 season on a one-year deal worth $23.4 million.
Smith’s contract eclipses the $21 million average salary of Eagles guard Landon Dickerson, who signed a four-year, $84 million deal in 2023.
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