CHIEFS SIGN PRO BOWL C CREED HUMPHREY TO FOUR-YEAR, $72 MILLION EXTENSION, MAKING HIM THE HIGHEST PAID CENTER IN NFL HISTORY
After months of negotiations, the Kansas City Chiefs have finally signed two-time Pro Bowl center Creed Humphrey to a new contract extension. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the new deal is a four-year, $72 million extension, including up to $50 million in guaranteed money. Humphrey was headed into the last year of his rookie deal.
The extension keeps the 25-year-old in Kansas City through the 2028 season and brings his annual average salary to $18 million, making him the highest paid center in NFL history. The deal was negotiated by Humphrey’s agents Ken Sarnoff and Andy Simms of 1 of 1 Agency.
Humphrey has been a key piece of the Chiefs’ offensive line since being drafted in the second round in 2021, helping the Chiefs to two Super Bowl wins and three consecutive AFC Championship games. The former Oklahoma Sooner was drafted following the Chiefs’ devastating 31-9 defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV in which Kansas City failed to protect Patrick Mahomes. Humphrey has since started 51 consecutive games in the three years he’s been at the club, tying the third-most in Chiefs history.
“He’s a heck of a football player, a real good football player,” said Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid about Humphrey following Thursday night’s 34-21 preseason loss to the Chicago Bears. “He started off that way and he kept it going that way. So we appreciate all he does and we appreciate having him here.”
Humphrey ranked second among the NFL’s interior offensive linemen in pass block win rate at 98.8% last season, finishing ahead of teammate and All-Pro guard Joe Thuney.
Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach told reporters last month that they were working on long-term deals for starting G Trey Smith, LB Nick Bolton and Humphrey, and now have one of them extended. Kansas City is still believed to be in talks to extend both Bolton and Smith.
Veach commented on Humphrey’s extension on Thursday saying “Needless to say, we’re extremely excited to continue Creed’s career here. He’s been great for our organization, and look, we have been very fortunate to have a really good group of young guys. Hopefully we are able to get a little bit more work done with some of these other guys as well.”
After signing franchise placekicker Harrison Butker to a significant contract extension earlier this month, the Chiefs’ move to lock up their All-Pro center is the franchise’s latest in improving their chances at winning an unprecedented third straight Lombardi trophy. Kansas City beat out the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl over the last two years, and has the chance to make NFL history this year, something the team hasn’t shied away from since their Super Bowl win in Las Vegas in February.
“I’m going to celebrate tonight, I’m going to celebrate at the parade and I’m going to do whatever I can to be back in this game next year trying to go for that three-peat,” said Mahomes in his presser following the Chiefs’ 25-22 Super Bowl win. “It’s an ongoing thing in the NFL, I think Tom [Brady] said it best, ‘once you win that Championship, you have the parade and you get those rings, you’re not the champ anymore,’ you have to come back with that same mentality.”
“That’s my mindset, I’m going to celebrate with my guys because of how we’ve done this and then we’re going to work our way to get back to this game [again] next year.”
“I’ll see y’all next year,” said Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce during the team’s trophy presentation.
General Manager Brett Veach said in his Super Bowl parade speech on February 14th “You see what [Chiefs announcer] Mitch [Holthus] did here, he kind of gave me some room because next year, we come back from New Orleans, we’re going to see what history looks like when we go for that three-peat, right? Thank you.”
Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid, ever the pragmatist, however, told Rich Eisen on the Rich Eisen Show back in March that his intention and care was that the team maximizes the chances they had in front of them. “I don’t really care about the end result there,” said Reid. “I care about making sure that we get ourselves ready to go and maximize ourselves in preparation. That’s what’s real… Let’s maximize the day after that, to work to get better, within reason. We try to be smart with that.”
“That’s what you can control not predicting that we’re going to win three [Super Bowls] in a row and all of this stuff. That’s not where I go. That’s easily said, it’s very hard to do.”
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.