The Kansas City Chiefs don’t plan on allowing pending free agent right guard Trey Smith from testing the open market this offseason. CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reports the three-time defending AFC champions plan to use the franchise tag on their Pro Bowl guard, which would lock him into a $23.4 million one-year deal that is fully guaranteed.
Doing so also gives the Chiefs more time to negotiate a long-term deal. This move is the fourth in a series of deals in which general manager Brett Veach has heavily invested in Patrick Mahomes’ offensive line. Kansas City made All-Pro center Creed Humphrey the league’s highest-paid player at his position with a four-year, $72 million contract, and they signed right tackle Jawaan Taylor to a four-year, $80 million contract in the 2023 offseason. Left guard Joe Thuney is also on a big five-year, $80 million deal, and he was pressed into duty at left tackle at the end of the season.
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Cody Benjamin
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Smith, who earned his first Pro Bowl selection at 25-years-old in the 2024 season, tied for the NFL lead in the most pass blocking snaps without allowing a sack this past season, 665. He was tied with Thuney, his own teammate, for the league lead in that category. Smith has also been durable, starting 67 of a possible 68 games in his four-year NFL career. The Chiefs will need to invest in reinforcing both of their offensive tackle spots this offseason so that Thuney can go back to left guard and so Mahomes can stay upright.
The three-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback was sacked a career-high 36 times in 2024, and Mahomes was sacked a single-game, career-high six times in the Chiefs’ 40-22 Super Bowl LIX loss against the Philadelphia Eagles. Kansas City now has the interior of its offensive line secured with Smith, Humphrey and Thuney, but their offensive line is far from a finished product this offseason. The unfortunate thing for the Chiefs is they may have to put up with Taylor, who is the NFL’s most penalized player (31 penalties) since coming to Kansas City in 2023, for one more year. Cutting Taylor, who has $20 million in guaranteed salary for 2025, would leave the Chiefs eating $34.8 million in dead money while shrinking their 2025 cap space by $7.4 million. The Chiefs can release Taylor and save $20 million in cap space in 2026.
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