{"id":209665,"date":"2025-07-15T19:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/209665\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T19:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:02:10","slug":"trey-smith-chiefs-finalizing-record-extension-to-make-him-highest-paid-guard-in-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/209665\/","title":{"rendered":"Trey Smith, Chiefs finalizing record extension to make him highest-paid guard in NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a far different outcome than Kansas City’s last experience with the franchise tag, when the Chiefs used it<\/a> on cornerback L’Jarius Sneed<\/a> in March 2024 before trading him<\/a> weeks later.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs were already beyond that timeline this year, holding a pre-draft news conference on April 18 when general manager Brett Veach reiterated the team’s hopes<\/a> of coming to a multi-year solution with Smith.<\/p>\n

Such a deal took time to hash out, though, especially for an offensive lineman of Smith’s caliber. The recently turned 26-year-old didn’t allow a sack last season until giving up one apiece in the team’s final two playoff games, and he was already set to be the league’s highest-paid guard in 2025 on the tag.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs nonetheless accomplished what they set out to do under the wire, and have now committed a considerable amount of resources to shoring up Patrick Mahomes<\/a>‘ offensive line.<\/p>\n

Protection was exposed as a weakness for Kansas City during its Super Bowl loss<\/a> to the Eagles, but even before that there was a question mark regarding Mahomes’ blindside, with the team finally finding an answer by sliding Joe Thuney<\/a> out to left tackle midseason.<\/p>\n

That was always a temporary measure, however, and the Chiefs essentially chose Smith over Thuney this offseason by trading<\/a> the elder guard to the Bears. The Chiefs then used a 2025 first-round pick on Josh Simmons<\/a> as their new LT of the future.<\/p>\n

On top of inking Smith’s shiny new deal and using first-round draft capital on Simmons, Kansas City is paying Creed Humphrey<\/a> the highest average annual salary for a center at $18 million per year, right tackle Jawaan Taylor<\/a> $20 million per year — fourth-highest at his position — and left tackle Jaylon Moore<\/a> a hefty $15 million per year. Kingsley Suamataia<\/a>, a 2024 second-round pick, is set to man the guard spot opposite Smith.<\/p>\n

It makes for a strong (but pricy) group of six to work through for the best starting combination as any injuries or performance issues arise in the coming months, plus Wanya Morris<\/a> and Mike Caliendo<\/a> are around for depth.<\/p>\n

Kansas City’s 2025 O-line has been established for some time now, but guaranteeing Smith’s future beyond a one-year Band-Aid makes moving on from Thuney, a first-team All-Pro two seasons straight, more tenable. With Smith clogging the middle alongside Humphrey, the opponent’s most direct path to Mahomes should prove a difficult one for years.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs have cause to celebrate a short time out from training camp, where Smith and Co. will begin their quest to retake the NFL throne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a far different outcome than Kansas City’s last experience with the franchise tag, when the Chiefs used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[1227,787,7,110,88,609,4267,1216],"class_list":{"0":"post-209665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-no-minute","14":"tag-offseason-news","15":"tag-trey-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}