Feb 18, 2026, 08:47 AM ET<\/p>\n
The Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> restructured Patrick Mahomes<\/a>‘ contract this week, creating much-needed salary cap space ahead of the 2026 season, according to ESPN and multiple reports.<\/p>\n The restructuring, first reported Wednesday by Over the Cap, converts $54.45 million of Mahomes’ 2026 salary into a signing bonus and lowers the star quarterback’s cap number to $34.65 million.<\/p>\n The Chiefs, who missed the playoffs in 2025 after reaching the Super Bowl in each of the three previous seasons, created $43.65 million in cap space. It marks the fourth consecutive year that Kansas City has restructured Mahomes’ contract.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n The Chiefs entered the offseason more than $57 million over the cap and still will need to make some financial maneuvers after reworking Mahomes’ deal. Mahomes, who is recovering from knee surgery, initially was set to count for $78.2 million against the cap in 2026.<\/p>\n Under the terms of the restructured deal, Mahomes now will count for an additional $11 million against Kansas City’s cap each of the next four seasons, bringing his total cap number to $85 million for 2027, according to Over the Cap. The three-time Super Bowl MVP is a potential candidate for a contract extension before 2028, when his salary and cap number both drop significantly.<\/p>\n For now, however, the cap savings are vital to the Chiefs, who are coming off their first losing season in over a decade and face decisions on multiple high-priced veteran players. Kansas City needs to be under the NFL’s salary cap when the new league year starts on March 11.<\/p>\n Star defensive lineman Chris Jones<\/a>, who is set to count for nearly $45 million against the cap, is another candidate for a restructured deal. The Chiefs could potentially cut offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor<\/a>, who has one year remaining on his four-year, $80 million deal. Other veteran players who are candidates to be released include Mike Danna<\/a>, Drue Tranquill<\/a> and Noah Gray<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mahomes initially signed his 10-year, $450 million deal with the Chiefs in 2020 — the richest contract in North American team sports history at the time. The two-time league MVP had surgery in mid-December to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee and said last month that he wanted to play in the Chiefs’ 2026 season opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 18, 2026, 08:47 AM ET The Kansas City Chiefs restructured Patrick Mahomes‘ contract this week, creating much-needed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,6,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-760572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116092341180157314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760572","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=760572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}