Kansas City once again gives one of its players a big payday — and save money against this year’s salary cap.
Just before Thursday’s NFL season opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, we learned that Kansas City had given backup tight end Noah Gray a three-year contract extension worth $18 million — including $10.1 million guaranteed.
The details of that contract are now available. According to the salary-cap site Spotrac, the former Duke tight end’s new deal has some similarities to the recent extensions given to placekicker Harrison Butker and center Creed Humphrey. Like both of those, it supercedes the final year of Gray’s rookie contract and gives him a substantial pay raise for the coming season — while reducing his current cap hit.
Gray’s rookie deal was going to count $3.2 million against the cap in 2024, including a $3.1 million base salary and $78,000 from the pro-rated signing bonus of his rookie deal. The extension pays him $7.1 million in 2024. That comes in the form of a $1.1 million base salary — the minimum for an NFL player with three credited seasons — plus a signing bonus of $6 million. But since that signing bonus can be spread across four seasons at $1.5 million each year, his 2024 cap hit falls $550,000 to $2.6 million.
In 2025, Gray’s base salary rises to $3 million (with a $100,000 workout bonus). In 2026 and 2027, it will be $4.7 million (with $250,000 for workouts). In those last two seasons, he also has a per-game roster bonus of $30,000, which adds another $510,000 to his potential earnings — and makes his cap hit $7 million in both of those seasons.
But he might never reach those contract years. While his base salaries in both 2024 and 2025 are guaranteed, the Chiefs will only be on the hook for his $1.5 million pro-rated signing bonus cap charge in 2026 and 2027.
So just like the previous contracts for Butker and Humphrey, the average annual value (AAV) of Gray’s deal will probably continue to be perceived as higher than it really is. Spotrac has it listed at $6 million AAV because it added $18 million in new money over three additional years. But what’s actually happened is that Gray and the team tore up the final year of his previous contract, making a new one that pays him $5.3 million AAV over four years — and it might end up paying him even less: just over $5 million AAV over two years.
Including the one-year contracts for running back Samaje Perine (a 2024 cap hit of $1.5 million that includes $290,000 guaranteed) and defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu ($1.1 million), we now estimate that the Chiefs have $5.7 million in cap space.
