Chiefs G Trey Smith is one of the top free agents available and is set to be in high demand in March. Thanks to the rising salary cap and some big contracts for guards in recent years, Smith is looking at a huge contract from someone.
The general expectation has been that contract will come from a team besides the Chiefs. However, GM Brett Veach says they have not given up on keeping Smith in Kansas City.
“He’s obviously at the top of the list. We’ve already had some good dialogue with him,” Veach said via Pro Football Talk. “Obviously, a lot to work through. This is the time to do that and, again, we’ve already had some initial dialogue. That will continue on this week a the days to come leading up to free agency. We’ll certainly do what we can and feel pretty optimistic about our possibilities there.”
Reports have indicated the Chiefs will not use the franchise tag to keep Smith from testing the market. The tag would pay Smith around $25 million fully guaranteed for the 2025 season, while the top of the guard market is currently at $21 million a year.
To keep Smith, the Chiefs will have to be competitive with other bidders, even if he ultimately is willing to take a little less to stay in Kansas City.
Smith, 25, was a two-time first-team All-SEC selection at Tennessee but missed a chunk of his sophomore season due to blood clots. That contributed to him sliding to the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, where he was selected by the Chiefs.
He signed a four-year, $3.61 million rookie contract that included a signing bonus of $130,704. Smith made a base salary of $3.366 million in 2024 after qualifying for the Proven Performance Escalator.
In 2024, Smith appeared in all 17 games for the Chiefs and made 17 starts at right guard. Pro Football Focus has him graded as the No. 14 guard out of 77 qualifying players.
We have him included in our Top 100 2025 NFL Free Agents list.
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