For the better part of the last decade, Patrick Mahomes’ career existed in a strange paradox. While he was the most dominant quarterback in football, he was not the highest-paid. While he kept piling the accolades, other quarterbacks kept leapfrogging him in salary. But Mahomes never made a fuss; he consistently prioritized winning over money. Now that he is officially back as the highest-paid player in the league, Pat McAfee sees this moment differently. For him, this was a time long overdue, and Mahomes had every right to be frustrated about being underpaid over the years.

“All these other quarterbacks start making a lot more than him average per year,” McAfee said. “And everybody outside the Chiefs was talking like Mahomes got to be pissed at some point that these, no offense, Trevor Lawrence making more, like a lot more. Dak (Prescott) making a lot more. Maybe even Kirk Cousins at one point, like there was a lot of quarterbacks, no offense to any of these guys, get all your money, that were making more money than Patrick Mahomes. And all we could think is, like, ‘Patrick Mahomes, this is not good for Patrick.”

Back in 2020, Mahomes signed his original 10-year, $450 million contract, setting a record for the largest deal in sports history. A few years later, however, he wasn’t even among the top 10 highest-paid quarterbacks in terms of average annual value. And that sparked debate over why Mahomes was earning less than several quarterbacks despite his success in the NFL.

Subsequently, the Chiefs restructured Mahomes’ $450 million contract in 2023, pushing the quarterback past the $50 million average annual salary mark. He earned $56.85 million in 2023, $44.5 million in 2024, $50 million in 2025, and is set to make $56.76 million in 2026. Even then, his average annual value of $52.6 million over those four years still trailed that of several quarterbacks.

For example, during the 2025 season, quarterbacks such as Dak Prescott led the charge with a head-turning $60 million AAV, while Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Josh Allen, and Joe Burrow followed at $55 million AAV. Meanwhile, Tua Tagovailoa stood at $53.1 million AAV, and Jared Goff and Brock Purdy at $53 million AAV, all of them surpassing Mahomes ‘ AAV.

And those contracts carried significant weight, considering no one except Joe Burrow even made a Super Bowl appearance. This is why, when the Chiefs restructured Mahomes’ contract, plenty of prominent voices suggested that the Chiefs’ quarterback was underpaid. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk was among them.

“Mahomes is getting half. He’s almost getting a third of Aaron Rodgers– a third. Look, someone said to me last week– and I don’t want to get into a fight with agents here, but it’s almost criminal what– what Mahomes’ representation did taking that deal,” Florio said.

Since starting his NFL career in 2017, Mahomes has led the Chiefs to five Super Bowls, winning three championships, three Super Bowl MVPs, two MVPs, and seven consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances. In that stretch, the quarterback has thrown for nearly 36,000 yards and 267 touchdowns. Still, Mahomes had emphasized that he wasn’t underpaid in the NFL.

“I know every time a contract comes up, everybody looks at my APY [average per year] and everything like that,” he said a couple of years ago. “I’m doing pretty well myself. For me, it’s just about going out there trying to win football games, trying to make money for my family at the end of the day. I feel like I’m doing a great job of that.”

Fast forward to now, and Mahomes has just become the highest-paid player in the league. The Chiefs have restructured his contract, adding two more years through the 2033 season. With that, Mahomes has become the first NFL player to sign a deal worth over half a billion dollars, with an average annual value of around $64 million.

“Over the last decade, Patrick has become one of the most iconic, beloved sports figures of all time,” Clark Hunt said. “He has helped lead our franchise to five Super Bowl appearances and three championships; he has been instrumental in shaping the Chiefs’ brand and putting Kansas City on the world stage; and on top of it all he has been an outstanding role model in the community. Patrick is a generational talent and an elite human being, and I’m so excited he will continue to lead our team into the future.”

At the same time, it’s worth remembering that while Mahomes has reset the quarterback market, he might not remain the highest-paid player in the league with the NFL continuously increasing the salary cap, and the quarterback market keeps surging.