{"id":852673,"date":"2026-04-04T04:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T04:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852673\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T04:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T04:34:28","slug":"george-karlaftis-contract-suddenly-looking-better-for-the-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852673\/","title":{"rendered":"George Karlaftis’ Contract Suddenly Looking Better for the Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last summer, when the Kansas City Chiefs decided to hand a four-year, $88 million contract extension<\/a> to former first-round pick George Karlaftis, it made sense given that he was coming off an eight-sack season in 2024 and 24.5 sacks through three years.<\/p>\n

When players are given extensions, it’s based on what they\u2019re projected to do down the road, while also rewarding them for their past effort. It also benefits the team if they can get a deal done before other teams can start signing their extension-eligible players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Friday, one of Karlaftis\u2019 draft classmates, Travon Walker, finally got his contract extension, and he surprisingly got more than the Chiefs’ pass rusher. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Jacksonville Jaguars signed Walker to a four-year, $110 million extension<\/a>, which includes $77 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n

This is a notable difference from Karlaftis\u2019 contract, which had $61.7 million guaranteed. But one could argue that even though Karlaftis is coming off a down year, his contract looks much better based on the full body of work.<\/p>\n

Chiefs Can View George Karlaftis’ Contract in a New Light After Friday<\/p>\n

Some Chiefs fans began to have buyer\u2019s remorse about Karlaftis\u2019 contract after he posted only six sacks last season. However, Karlaftis\u2019 six sacks ranked second behind Chris Jones (seven sacks).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While fans expected better, there was only so much he could do as the entire defensive line did not show up last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That being said, the fact that Karlaftis\u2019 career low for sacks in a season is six, which he\u2019s done twice already, compared to Walker, who has had two 3.5 sack seasons. One could argue that he\u2019s been the more consistent player than the guy who is getting more than him and who was the former No. 1 overall pick.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Walker, he turned in a dismal 3.5 sack season after having back-to-back 10.5 sack campaigns. The Jaguars defender saw his quarterback hits dip to 13 after having 19 and 15 in the previous two years. His tackles for loss went to eight, and quarterback pressures were a career-low 19.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not encouraging for a player who should be continuing to ascend. As for Karlaftis, he\u2019s been a consistent pass rusher off the edge for the Chiefs. While he didn\u2019t have 8.5 sacks last season, Karlaftis had 31 quarterback pressures, 23 quarterback hits, and 10 tackles for loss (career-high).<\/p>\n

Additionally, Karlaftis was pretty good against the run, posting a 70.4 grade<\/a>, per Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, Walker was nowhere near on the same level in run defense as Karlaftis, with a 64.2 grade.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a Chiefs fan or someone in the front office, you’d rather take the player who cannot only get to the quarterback, but also hold their own in stopping the run. Hopefully, the Chiefs can add another pass rusher to play alongside Karlaftis, giving him better opportunities to produce in one-on-one situations.<\/p>\n

With an average annual value of $22 million compared to Walker\u2019s $27.5 million AAV, the Chiefs clearly got the better player, and his contract should age pretty well over time if he stays between six and eight sacks a year.<\/p>\n

More Kansas City Chiefs News and Rumors:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last summer, when the Kansas City Chiefs decided to hand a four-year, $88 million contract extension to former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-852673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kansas-city","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-kansascity","13":"tag-kansascitychiefs","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116344577980635061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852673","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=852673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}