The Chiefs’ deal for QB Carson Wentz will cost the team $3.3 million

Kansas City gave Wentz a good contract for a backup quarterback — but not all of it will count against the cap.

When it was reported that the Kansas City Chiefs had signed quarterback Carson Wentz to a one-year contract to be their backup to Patrick Mahomes, there was no information about the terms of the deal. But now, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero has reported the contract’s details.

As laid out on the salary-cap site Spotrac, the ninth-year veteran will earn a fully-guaranteed base salary of $1,210,000 and is being paid a signing bonus of $990,000.

Wentz — like many Kansas City players — is also carrying a roster bonus against the salary cap. In his case, it’s for $25,000. Finally, he’s set to earn as much as $1.1 million in per-game roster bonuses, which works out to about $64,706 for each game.

It’s important to note that Wentz will earn these roster bonuses simply by being active on game day; it won’t matter if he actually plays. So it’s very likely that he will be paid every dime of that $1.1 million this season.

But since Wentz was active for only eight 2023 matchups for the Los Angeles Rams, just eight of these per-game bonuses — a total of $517,647 — are considered likely-to-be-earned (LTBE) and will count against the 2024 salary cap. If earned, the rest will count against the 2025 cap calculation.

So while the team will likely pay him all of the $3.3 million available in this deal, Wentz’s 2024 cap hit will be just $2.7 million.

We now estimate that with all known signings (including that of defensive end Mike Danna, for whom we do not yet have full contract details) the Chiefs now have between $19.6 million and $21.6 million in cap space — probably somewhere around $20.8 million.