2022 NFL Free Agency: Chiefs, Tyreek Hill negotiate long-term contract

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL NetworkKansas City Chiefs have been in talks with their broad successor Tyrick Hill – whose current contract is only for the upcoming season – for a long-term contract extension.

“This will be Tyreek Hill’s third contract,” Rapoport told the NFL Now program on Friday. “My understanding is that both countries – longtime Tyrick Hill agent Drew Rosenhouse and Kansas City Chiefs – took part in the talks this week. There were proposals going back and forth for a potential long-term deal. “

Although Rapoport did not disclose any details about the specific length or size of the proposals being passed back and forth, he said the contract would be structured much differently than the one Hill and the Chiefs developed in 2019, when Hill signed a four-year contract totaling $ 54 million.

“Now, the last time these two countries have made a long-term deal,” Rapoport said, “he was unique in getting Tyrick Hill – given all the off-field challenges he had – to win every part of him. My understanding is [that] this deal is much more normal and conventional. “

Rapoport was referring to the fact that Hill is guaranteed only the minimum wage in the league each year of his current contract – which is only $ 1.035 million in 2022. But according to his current deal, he will earn more than $ 18 million this season. $ 12 million of that comes from a bonus on the list.

As is customary in Kansas City contracts, there is a $ 500,000 training bonus – and Hill will earn another $ 3 million when he attends training camp. Finally, there is an active playlist bonus totaling $ 1.5 million.

“Given what he has done in the last three years,” Rapoport added, “he won the opportunity to get a real and regular contract – one that will probably make him one of the best paid successors in the NFL.”

Carrying out this extension will now not only lock the team’s undisputed successor to the team for extra seasons, but will also help address the current wage restraint problems in Kansas City. Under a new contract structure – in which Hill will undoubtedly earn at least as much as he is set to win this season – his 2022 bonuses could be commensurate with the duration of the extension, which could open well over $ 10 million in thus the necessary space for the salary ceiling. We currently estimate that the bosses have only about $ 11 million.

None of this means that a final deal is imminent. As Chiefs general manager Brett Wich noted earlier this week, team leaders spend a lot of time during the NFL Combine Week meeting with agents of all their players; other negotiations are likely under way.

But this confirms several things we have long suspected: that the bosses intend to keep the 28-year-old player during the most productive years of his career – and that extending his contract will be one of the ways the team opens to limit space during this off-season.