KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The king of Kansas City had a different glimmer in his eye after restructuring his current contract.

Patrick Mahomes’ contract restructure gives him $210.6 million between 2023 and 2026, the most money in NFL history over four seasons.

Reports said Mahomes’ compensation is now guaranteed, and the Chiefs and Mahomes plan to revisit the QB’s contract again after the 2026 season.

“I’m very thankful to the Hunt family and the Chiefs organization,” Mahomes said, “and glad that now I can just go out there and play football. And so you get that security and I already had it, but just to get a little bump and then be able to go back out there and just play football, I’m excited for it.”

The franchise once had the richest quarterback in sports with Mahomes’ 10-year, $503 million contract he signed in July 2020. 

The 27-year-old said there is constant communication between his team and the Chiefs’ front office and he always wants to get paid his worth but leave the Chiefs with enough dollars to bring in talent.

“You have to watch and see what’s going on around the league and find that right spot. And I thought we found a good one in this negotiation that we did that we’ll be able to still keep cap space for other guys to get signed.

“But obviously I got a little bit more money upfront and then we’ll kind of redo it and renegotiate whenever we get to that, that mark that we talked about. It’s a special place and a special relationship that I have with the team to be able to trust them, to be able to.. even when I signed the last contract, know that this was going to happen and then probably going to happen again at some point.”

And while the communication is mostly about observing other high-dollar quarterbacks get their place in the market, Mahomes and the front office know that as a two-time Super Bowl and NFL MVP, he must get paid his worth by resetting the market when they can.

“I think it’s just kind of a known that you just, you gotta keep the bar going,” Mahomes said.

“I don’t want people to be negotiated against me, and so that’s the reason that you do something like I did this last week. Just trying to keep the market moving in the right direction, training in the right direction, so not only me but other quarterbacks in other positions can get paid the money that they deserve.”

The illustrious Texas Tech alum has always been interested in the business of sports; if he wasn’t the best player in football, he’d be a sports agent or in sports marketing.

“I always wanted to help players. So I’ve always been interested in it. And I know that I’m doing it a different way than other people, but I feel like it’s the right way for me because of the trust I have in the front office that I’m going to still make a lot of money and be set for life and for my kids and everything like that. But hopefully, give us a chance to go out there and win football games as well.”

It’s difficult for the Chiefs to pay their other great players like Chris Jones and Travis Kelce top-of-the-market salaries because they must feed the beast of Mahomes. Sometimes the plan stumbles when someone like Jones asks for more money and then the Chiefs must adjust but restructuring other contracts like they did with guard Joe Thuney.

But as long as they have Mahomes, they always have a chance to bring in good players for less and that’s what the Chiefs have banked on since giving Mahomes the monstrous extension in 2020.

“You have a lot of great players [that] I want to want to be here so we can win a lot of Super Bowls, and I want to make a lot of money, but I also want to win. I think when you look back at teams and players, you look back at how they won and the perception of how they did things.

“That’s what I try to manage and find the right median of getting the money, but also winning football games.”