The near-unanimous response from NFL players in seeing Patrick Mahomes' gargantuan contract was clear: He's worth every penny.
The Super Bowl MVP signed a 10-year, $450 million contract extension that could pay him upwards of $503 million over the next 12 years (including the final two years of his rookie deal plus incentives).
Melvin Gordon has seen Mahomes up close as much as any player having spent his entire career in the AFC West and will continue to battle the quarterback as a new member of the Denver Broncos. The running back joined NFL Network's Total Access on Monday night and verbalized the pervasive feeling about Mahomes' new contact.
"Get it, man," he responded when asked by LaDainian Tomlinson if he'd seen the news. "I saw it earlier, y'all had put my little contract at the bottom (of the TV graphic). Don't even put my contract at the bottom after he just got $400 million. That's crazy. That's crazy, man. He's worth every dime, though, man. He is a phenomenal player. He won the MVP and then won the Super Bowl after that. The man is amazing. Like I said, if there's a guy that's worth it, he is. Just hats off to him. He a good dude, man, outside of that, too, so I'm proud for him. "
Gordon famously attempted to hold out last year to earn his worth from the Los Angeles Chargers. It didn't work out, and the RB signed a two-year, $16 million deal with the Broncos this offseason. The dichotomy between Gordon's situation and Mahomes' is the latest to underscore the Grand Canyon-sized difference in value between the running back and quarterback positions.
Mahomes, as Gordon noted, is worth every dime the Chiefs committed to him over the next 12 seasons. In relation to what CEOs of major multibillion-dollar corporations earn, the K.C. QB remains a relative bargain for the team. Had he forced his way to free agency, there is no telling what Mahomes could have commanded on the open market.
