Chiefs Salary Cap: Breaking down impact of Trey Smith’s extension

The Kansas City Chiefs managed to ink franchise-tagged guard Trey Smith to a four-year extension before Tuesday’s deadline. Rather than playing for $23.4 million on the franchise tag, Smith and the Chiefs agreed to a $94 million pact to make him the highest-paid guard in league history.

Mike Florio of NBC Sports soon reported the contract terms, potentially keeping Smith in Kansas City through 2028.

Smith is now guaranteed to earn $46.75 million over the next two seasons. For the coming season, he will receive a $10 million base salary on top of a $17 million signing bonus. The former sixth-round selection also gets a fully guaranteed $19.75 million base salary in 2026.

For 2025, Smith will now carry a salary cap charge of $14.25 million, and he is now set to count $24.25 million against the 2026 limit.

A $23.25 million base salary for 2027 is also already guaranteed for injury, and it fully vests on the third day of the 2026 league year. With Smith also able to earn a $250,000 workout bonus in each of the next three offseasons, he has likely secured a total of $70.5 million over the next three seasons.

No salary is guaranteed for 2028, the final season of the agreement. Should Smith remain in Kansas City on the contract, he will again make a $23.25 million base salary and be able to earn another $250,000 workout bonus. Playing out the entire four years would also allow Smith to reenter free agency in 2029, just before his 30th birthday.

Smith will have a scheduled salary cap charge of $27.75 million in 2027 and 2028.

Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images

Most observers expected general manager Brett Veach to follow the familiar four-year precedent of two fully guaranteed seasons with a third season fully vesting early in the contract. The Chiefs did frontload the cap impact of Smith’s contract more than anticipated, with a lower-than-expected signing bonus paired with a higher first-year base salary than commonly seen.

While the Chiefs did substantially trim Smith’s previous 2025 cap charge of $23.4 million, they potentially could have cut it to under $7 million.

It will be interesting to see how the numbers impact the Chiefs’ already murky 2026 cap situation — or if Veach has other moves coming before the season, such as a potential extension for cornerback Trent McDuffie.

With the details of Smith’s contract, we estimate Kansas City to be about $20.6 million under the 2025 salary cap, with only days to go before training camp kicks off at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph.