If Patrick Mahomes hasn't bought a house in Kansas City yet, he can probably go ahead and do that, because it looks like he's going to be there for a long time. The Chiefs quarterback agreed to terms on a record-setting deal Monday that will reportedly pay him an NFL-record $477 million (up to $503 million) over the next 10 years.
Although the dollar amount in the contract is definitely eye-popping, the length of the contract is also notable, and that's because you almost never see 10-year deals in the NFL, and that's for two reasons. For one, most players don't want to be locked down for that long -- they want to hit free agency -- so a player would almost always turn down that long of a deal. The other reason is that a 10-year contract can come with a lot of risk from the team's standpoint, so it doesn't generally make sense for either side.
Thanks to his new deal, Mahomes now becomes just the sixth player in NFL history to receive an extension of 10 years or more, and the Chiefs will be hoping that things go slightly better than they went for the previous five players.
Let's take a look at the five 10-year deals in NFL history -- and unsurprisingly they are all quarterbacks.
Brett Favre (Packers)
Contract: 10-year, $100 million extension signed in March 2001
After watching Favre win three straight MVP awards in the late 1990s, the Packers finally decided to reward him with a monstrous 10-year deal in 2001. The contract was meant to make Favre a "Packer for life," but as we all know, that's not what happened. After watching Favre annually contemplate retirement, the Packers finally decided it was time to move on, and in 2008, that's what they did when they traded their star quarterback to the Jets, which kicked off the Aaron Rodgers era in Green Bay. Favre played out seven of the 10 years in his contract before the Packers dealt him away.
Drew Bledsoe (Patriots)
Contract: 10-year, $103 million extension signed in March 2001
When you sign a 10-year contract with a team, that usually means that both sides are in it for the long haul, but it doesn't always work out that way, and if you need proof, just look at what happened to Drew Bledsoe. Less than seven months after signing his deal, Bledsoe got injured, and while he was out, he was replaced by Tom Brady. And as you've probably known by now, Brady played so well that Bledsoe never got his starting job back. Less than 14 months after signing his contract in New England, the Patriots decided to go all-in with Brady, which meant dumping Bledsoe. After just one season on his new deal, the quarterback was traded to Buffalo.
Donovan McNabb (Eagles)
Contract: 12-year, $115 million extension signed in September 2002
Surprisingly, the deal given to Patrick Mahomes isn't the first time that Andy Reid has given one of his quarterbacks a contract that ran for at least a decade. Back in 2002, Donovan McNabb signed the longest contract in NFL history when he agreed to a 12-year deal. Although McNabb would never lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl win, you could argue that the contract ended up being a solid investment for Philadelphia. Not only did McNabb end up playing eight of the 12 years, but during that eight-year span, he led Philly to six playoff appearances, four NFC title game appearances and a Super Bowl. The Eagles held on to McNabb until 2010 when he was shockingly traded to the Redskins.
Daunte Culpepper (Vikings)
Contract: 10-year, $102 million extension signed in May 2003
Despite the fact that he was coming off a 2002 season where he went 6-10, the Vikings still thought it would be a good idea to give Culpepper a 10-year deal in 2003. Although Culpepper was somewhat productive for the Vikings for the first two years of his deal, the team never made the playoffs with him after he signed his deal. As a matter of fact, Culpepper would only last three more seasons in Minnesota before getting traded to the Dolphins after the 2005 season. Culpepper was Miami's backup option after their attempts to add Drew Brees fell through. The quarterback suffered a catastrophic knee injury while with the Vikings in October 2005 and was never really the same after that.
Michael Vick (Falcons)
Contract: 10-year, $130 million extension signed in December 2004
After watching Michael Vick electrify crowds for the first four years of his career, the Falcons finally decided to reward him with a monstrous extension near the end of the 2004 season. Although Vick absolutely deserved the extension, the contract ended up backfiring on the Falcons. In the months after the 2006 season, Vick was indicted and later convicted on federal dogfighting charges, which led to a 21-month prison sentence for the former first-round pick. After he was released, Vick eventually returned to the NFL with Reid and the Eagles in 2009.
Notable: Steve Young agrees to 43-year contract with USFL team
Before joining the NFL, the Hall of Fame quarterback actually played in the USFL first, and that's mostly notable because of the crazy contract he was given. The billionaire owner of the USFL's LA Express, J. William Oldenberg, lured Young to the startup league by basically offering him a four-year, $40 million contract that would be payable over 43 years. Under terms of the contract, Young received $4 million up front and base salaries of $200,000, $280,000, $330,000 and $400,000 for the four-year duration of the deal. Once the contract expired, Young would have no further obligation to the team, but the Express would pay him the final $30 million over 37 years, from when Young turned 28 until he turned 65.
The contract was set up as an annuity and if Young had funded the annuity, he would've been getting a $1 million check every year until 2027. Unfortunately, Young didn't fund the annuity, and he only ended up pocketing $4.8 million from the deal. For more details on that wild contract, be sure to click here.
