Two huge contract extensions were announced in the NFL on Tuesday.
The Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to terms with offensive lineman Trey Smith on a deal that could be worth up to $94 million over four years. The new deal, a record for an interior lineman, includes $70 million guaranteed. Smith was the last player still on the franchise tag, and though it was costly, it was a must for the Chiefs.
Also Tuesday, the New York Jets made Ahmad "Sauce" Gardner the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history, giving him a four-year extension worth $120.4 million.
These deals were mostly expected, and you can't fault those teams for paying two of their best players, but it makes two decisions made by the Denver Broncos look even better than they already did.
Last summer, the team signed guard Quinn Meinerz to a four-year, $80 million contract extension. That is 33 percent less than what the Chiefs just gave to Smith. Perhaps even better than that, the team agreed to a four-year, $96 million extension with Pat Surtain II.
That is $24 million less than the Jets had to pay Gardner, or about $6 million per season. Surtain responded by winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award and cementing himself as the best cornerback in the league, regardless of how Jets fans feel about Gardner.
Meinerz will be entering his fifth year in the league in 2025 and after being named a First-team All-Pro last season, he has established himself as one of the best guards in the league. In each case, Broncos fans will overwhelmingly feel like their team has the better player, and the fact that the team was able to pay them so much less than Smith and Gardner just got is huge.
In other words, the Broncos got a massive bargain.
The business side of the NFL doesn't always work that way. All too often, players are given huge contracts and don't come close to performing to the level to justify them, or injuries change things dramatically. At least so far, these two moves look like two of the best moves the Broncos' front office has made in quite some time.
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