Budget Constraints

Every National Football League team plays under the same rule. They can pay their 53 roster players whatever they want, but the total cannot exceed the League-wide salary cap. For the 2024 season, that ceiling sat at $255 million US dollars per club. Step over and the team is locked out of all player transactions until the cap is repaired. Patrick Mahomes signed a 10-year extension with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020 for $477 million. The largest contract in North American sports history at the time. Mahomes still consumes a substantial slice of the Chiefs cap every season. Every dollar paid to the quarterback is a dollar that cannot also be paid to the offensive line that protects him. This is the daily arithmetic of every NFL general manager. Spend big on a quarterback and assemble a cheaper offensive line.