KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes understands that his contract with the Chiefs — the longest deal in the NFL — will not be renegotiated or restructured before the start of this upcoming season. The understanding and expectation from both parties is that the status quo will continue through even next offseason.

During that time, a trend that is already noticeable will continue: Mahomes, the league’s most talented quarterback, will fall further and further down the list of the highest-paid players at the sport’s most prominent and paramount position.

Entering his seventh season, Mahomes, in his prime at age 27, is the league’s reigning MVP and Super Bowl MVP. He is also, as of Thursday, the league’s seventh-highest-paid quarterback, according to Over The Cap.

Within the last couple of months, as other quarterbacks — such as Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens), Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia Eagles) and Aaron Rodgers (New York Jets) — have surpassed Mahomes’ annual average of $45 million, the chatter among fans, analysts and even former players has ballooned, with them all asking, in essence, the same question: When will it be the proper time for the Chiefs to alter their contract for the greatest player in franchise history?

Following the Chiefs’ voluntary offseason practice Wednesday, Mahomes offered his thoughts.

“I’ve always said I worry about legacy and winning rings more than making money,” he said, smiling. “I’ll never do anything that’s going to hurt us from keeping the great players around me.”

In those two sentences, Mahomes reiterated his approach in what he prioritizes most in his career and acknowledged how his understanding of how his expectations financially will have a significant impact on his chances of earning more Super Bowl rings. He first expressed and delivered such a message July 6, 2020, the day he signed his 10-year, $477 million extension with the potential to earn as much as $503 million through incentives. At the time, Mahomes’ extension was the largest contract in sports history.

“We’re chasing a dynasty,” Mahomes said that day in a promotional video he released through his Twitter account.

Almost three years later, the Chiefs have indeed become the league’s newest dynasty. Mahomes has led the Chiefs to two Super Bowl wins in the past four seasons and the franchise has hosted the AFC Championship Game five consecutive years, the longest streak in the league’s 103-year history.

The overwhelming reaction from Chiefs fans toward Mahomes’ comments Wednesday was unbridled adulation. Another way Mahomes can endear himself even more to his fans, his teammates and those within the Chiefs’ organization is by never being the highest-paid quarterback again during the remaining prime years of his career, a move he has considered, according to multiple league sources.

“It’s more of a (thought) that you just want to do (a contract to where you don’t) hurt other quarterbacks whenever their contracts come up,” Mahomes said. “You want to keep the bar pushing (higher). It’s not about making a ton of money. I’ve made enough money to where I’ll be set for the rest of my life.

“But at the same time, you’ve got to find that line where you’re making a good amount of money but you’re still keeping a lot of great players around you so you can win these Super Bowls.”

In late March, club owner Clark Hunt, during the league’s annual owners’ meetings, told The Athletic in an exclusive interview that it was hard for him to anticipate how the landscape of the quarterback market would change in the next few years with Mahomes still having nine years left on his deal. When the Chiefs signed Mahomes to his extension, neither party anticipated that the Cleveland Browns would sign quarterback Deshaun Watson to a five-year, $230 million contract with all the money fully guaranteed. Russell Wilson was still a member of the Seattle Seahawks, too. But last year, the Denver Broncos, after acquiring Wilson in a blockbuster trade, signed their new quarterback to a five-year, $245 million contract extension.

“I don’t want to comment on any extension that we might want to discuss because I think it’s too early,” Hunt told The Athletic. “One of the aspects of his contract that’s not really well understood is that we have rolling guarantees. In a lot of ways, there’s a mechanism that makes it more guaranteed than it looks on the face.”

The Chiefs put guarantee mechanisms in the language of the extension, as more money becomes guaranteed throughout every year of the deal, which is uncommon in NFL contracts. If Mahomes remains on the Chiefs’ roster when the league holds free agency in 2026, he will be guaranteed to have earned at least $274 million. One of the details in Mahomes’ contract is that the largest roster bonuses occur in 2024, 2025 and ’26, a part of the structure that was put in to help the Chiefs have enough salary-cap space to sign other star players to extensions.

“I don’t know that there’s really a way to quantify it financially,” Hunt said last month during the NFL Draft of Mahomes’ value to the franchise. “No matter what he makes over his career, I’m sure, one way or another, he’ll be underpaid. The great thing about Patrick is when we did that deal, he recognized that he wanted to give the club the flexibility to build the team around him.

“What Patrick cared most about was winning.”

Two other star quarterbacks, Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals) and Justin Herbert (Los Angeles Chargers), are looking to sign lucrative extensions soon, with each deal expected to surpass the contract that Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals) signed last year, which was a five-year, $230.5 million extension with $160 million guaranteed.

“One crazy thing in this business — and really, in every business — is right when you sign a big deal, somebody’s going to beat you,” coach Andy Reid said last month. “You can start chasing that and kind of forget about your job. But Pat’s got a great feel for all that stuff. The main thing he wanted to do, which my hat just goes off to him, is he wanted to do a deal that was team-friendly.”

Several people in the Chiefs’ organization in 2020 felt the most logical period for Mahomes’ contract to be reworked was ahead of the 2026 season. But based on the changes in the QB market, the Chiefs understand it’s possible Mahomes could have a restructured deal before the start of the 2025 season.

In his pre-draft news conference last month, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach emphasized that he and his personnel staff — including assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi and co-vice presidents of football operations Brandt Tilis and Chris Shea — would study all of the top eight quarterback deals, including Burrow and Herbert, to help identify the best way for the Chiefs to adjust Mahomes’ contract.

“We have a special relationship with (Mahomes) and his agents (Chris Cabott and Leigh Steinberg),” Veach said. “We’re in constant communication.”

Part of Mahomes’ offseason has included him praising his peers, such as Jackson and Hurts, and congratulating them for earning market-setting contracts.

“He deserves it,” Mahomes said last month on the day Hurts agreed to a five-year, $255 million deal. “He’s someone who plays the position the right way. He goes about his business the right way, and that’s why they were in the Super Bowl. He played a great game in the Super Bowl and proved a lot of people wrong that were still doubting him.

“Obviously, it’s great for the quarterback position, the Black quarterbacks that are coming up behind us and them getting their deals. It’s just really cool to see because now there’s (no) hesitation on guys to get these deals. Even if they have to utilize running to make stuff happen, they’re such big impacts on the game that they’re getting the money that they deserve. Our job in this league is to go out there and win games. I’m glad to see that the guys that are doing it the right way are getting the job security that they deserve.”

Next year, the Chiefs are projected to have $51.7 million available in salary-cap space, according to Over The Cap, even with Mahomes set to have a cap hit of $46.7 million. Of course, though, the Chiefs could convert either all or a portion of the $34.9 million roster bonus in Mahomes’ contract into a signing bonus, a move that would create even more cap space.

The Chiefs created $9.6 million in cap space earlier this spring when they converted $12 million of the $34.4 million of Mahomes’ roster bonus into a signing bonus. A sizable amount of the $9.6 million allowed the Chiefs to acquire linebacker Drue Tranquill and safety Mike Edwards and re-sign defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi.

It’s possible next year that restructuring Mahomes’ deal is a tool the Chiefs can utilize to sign star center Creed Humphrey and linebacker Nick Bolton to contract extensions since both players would be entering the final year of their rookie deals.

Mahomes also wants his contract to not prevent the Chiefs from continuing to be a contender when trying to add quality veterans in free agency.

“I understand, when you look at the team’s (salary cap sheet),” Mahomes said. “You’ve got guys like (superstar defensive tackle) Chris (Jones) and (cornerback L’Jarius) Sneed and even (superstar tight end) Travis (Kelce), all these guys that you need to keep around you to have these great teams.