The Kansas City Chiefs have applied the franchise tag to Pro Bowl guard Trey Smith, keeping him with the Team for at least one more season. The move was made this afternoon after weeks of speculation that the 25-year-old KC 6th round 2021 selection was potentially headed to Chicago. Now, Smith stays where he’s been for 2025 and will earn $23.4 million guaranteed on a brand new one-year deal.
Smith was drafted out of Tennessee with the 226th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and has since become a cornerstone in Kansas City’s interior line. A two-time Super Bowl champion, his 2024 season saw him keep his stellar starter record, as he has now started in 67 of 68 games since his NFL career began, including 13 postseason games. Kansas City desperately wanted to retain Smith so he could continue being paired with fellow star offensive linemen in Creed Humphrey (C) and Joe Thuney (LG). The 25-year-old guard, who enters his 5th season in 2025, had the franchise deadline coming up just next Wednesday, a little less than a week from now.
Chiefs Franchise Tag Pro Bowl Guard Trey Smith for 1st Bright Offseason Move
However, it’s not quite the end of the road for Smith and the Chiefs. The team does have until July 15 to settle on a long term contract. If that deal can’t be reached, Smith will still play, just on a franchise tender, which in and of itself is the tag. Many are wondering why Kansas City is keeping a 6th round selection around for another year, and it turns out Smith was passed on by many teams in the 2021 draft due to a blood clotting issue he faced in college.
Even then, Smith is nowadays a $20 million dollar man, making him one of the most sought after unrestricted free agents this offseason. Of course, that’s not the case anymore with this news, but still- pretty impressive for someone of his position. In 2024, Smith ranked 13th among guards in pass block win rate (93.9%) and sixth in run block win rate (career-high 75.1%). He allowed just 1.5 sacks, per NFL Next Gen Stats, and committed just two penalties. That got rewarded with his first Pro Bowl nod, and in his prior 3 seasons, he’s ranked in the top four in pass rush win rate among guards, including second in both 2021 (96.0%) and 2023 (96.6%).
Trey Smith isn’t the only key offensive lineman Kansas City is looking to resign. Several other linemen on both sides of the ball are looking for new deals, particularly OT DJ Humphries, whose 2024 season was a rebound from a 2023 campaign cut short in the postseason by an ACL injury. Now, Humphries has had injury problems derail him before, which is why he was originally released by the Arizona Cardinals before KC picked him up.
At age 32, Humphries doesn’t have many more years starting in 2025. And yet, he’s a crucial piece of the Chiefs’ OL, especially at LT, which the Chiefs had a revolving door of all of this season. At least Smith wasn’t a problem area on their front lines.
On the opposite side of the Chiefs, the defensive lines, another piece of the team that needs work, first up is DT Derrick Nnadi. Alongside the team’s best defensive lineman in Chris Jones, Nnadi is part of a DL that still hasn’t fully recovered after the release of Willie Gay following the 2024 offseason. As a matter of fact, it’s been almost 1 year since that deal went through.
Nnadi has stuck around since the Chiefs’ 2018 draft class and is the only one from that year still with the team after the release of practice squad WR Tremon Smith. Nnadi joined KC at a time where they were just about to hire their current DC in Steve Spagnuolo, and most know how that turned out.
