The Kansas City Chiefs made the first big salary conversion splash of the 2026 offseason, processing a simple (but large) restructure on QB Patrick Mahomes’ contract this past week.

The move converted $44.05M of base salary, plus a $10.4M roster bonus, into a fully guaranteed roster bonus that will be treated as a signing bonus for salary cap purposes. This leads to a cap savings of $43.56M in 2026 for the Chiefs. KC still has work to do however, as they head into the franchise tag window about $14M over a projected $303.45M league salary cap.

The cap conversion provides no change for Mahomes in terms of cash earnings, as the 30-year-old is still set to reel in $56.75M in 2026, tops in the NFL as of now.

Updated Cap Hits, Dead Cap, & Cash Salary


The Chiefs will have the ability to process another simple salary conversion next season, a move that can reduce his cap hit from $85.2M, down to $44.8M (creating over $40M of space).