With new contract done, Creed Humphrey is happy to focus on football

As the Kansas City Chiefs prepared to kick off their preseason finale against the Chicago Bears on Thursday, multiple league insiders had breaking news regarding one of the team's key players.

Center Creed Humphrey — a second-round selection of the 2021 draft — had agreed to a new four-year extension that will keep him in Kansas City through the 2028 season. The two-time Pro Bowl selection will reportedly earn $72 million over four years — with $50 million guaranteed. While the full details of Humphrey's new contract remain unknown, that's a record amount for a center.

For Humphrey, the chance to play his entire career in Kansas City was an important factor in the negotiations.

"I'm in the perfect situation for me," he told reporters on Monday. "I'm playing in a place that I get to call home — and it's been awesome to call home the past four years. I've really enjoyed it. So getting this opportunity is awesome."

While any center would see the opportunity to snap to the league's best quarterback as "awesome," Humphrey knows the high quality extends throughout the organization.

"The guys around, [the] coaching staff [and] everything is top notch here," he observed. "Obviously, [with] getting to play with Pat — things like that — this whole situation is perfect for me. I'm really happy to be here."

Going into what would have been the final year of his rookie deal, Humphrey is happy to turn all of his attention to his play.

"It worked out on both sides," he said. "It was a good process, and it worked out great. So I'm excited about it. For me, I'm glad that that's out of the way now. I can focus all on football."

The timing of the contract news made for a jovial sideline atmosphere as Humphrey and rest of the team's starters watched Thursday night's game.

"Everybody was telling me congratulations and everything," he recalled, "and I'm excited about it. For me, I had that day to be excited. But now it's back to work."

Now that he is the league's highest-paid center, Humphrey joins quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce in recognizing the importance of today's contract negotiations in setting up tomorrow's top talent for financial success.

"I think that's something that everybody wants to do — for the sake of everybody in the NFL," he noted.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

Humphrey is the fourth player the Chiefs have signed to a market-topping contract this year. Defensive tackle Chris Jones signed a new monster contract to remain in Kansas City. An adjustment to Kelce's salary again made him the league's highest-paid tight end. More recently, placekicker Harrison Butker signed an extension that reset another positional market.

These three commitments left some doubt about the team's ability to extend the center's contract. But Humphrey wasn't concerned.

"You know," he declared, "I never really thought about it. For me, I've just tried to stay focused on ball — and that's the way I've approached this whole thing: to stay focused on ball and prove what I can every day. It was never really something that I was too busy straining and thinking over too much."

In the next year, the Chiefs will face other decisions about their other young stars — including fellow 2021 draft picks like right guard Trey Smith and linebacker Nick Bolton.

"We obviously would love to be able to have everyone stay," he said of his teammates. "[But] it's not really too much on my mind to figure that out. For me, it's just now focusing on football and focusing on this year — focusing on the days ahead [and] getting ready for another run of this thing."