ClutchPoints
The Kansas City Chiefs are quickly wrapping up loose ends with 2025 training camps around the corner. In their latest move, the team signed defensive end George Karlaftis on a $93 million extension to keep him around through the 2030 season.
Karlaftis, a former first-round pick, was about to enter the final season of his rookie deal. The Purdue alum has been solid through three years, accumulating 32.5 sacks through his first 66 games with the team. Those numbers include the playoffs, in which he has already started nine games in his young career.
Before Karlaftis signed his new deal, many of his peers helped him out by continuously raising the bar. Maxx Crosby initiated the process with his $106.5 million extension, followed shortly thereafter by Myles Garrett’s $160 million deal. T.J. Watt recently joined them with a contract worth a whopping $123 million. All three became the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time of their deals.
Though he took a slight step back in 2024 — ending the year with eight sacks after posting a career-high 10.5 in 2023 — Karlaftis has been a beacon of consistency on the Chiefs’ defense. The high-energy edge-rusher has missed just two games in his career and ended the year as the team’s sacks leader the last two years.
However, despite all his success, Karlaftis has yet to make the Pro Bowl roster. Yet, once his new deal kicks in, Karlaftis will become the ninth-highest-paid edge-rusher in the league in terms of total value, with the eighth-highest guaranteed amount, per Over The Cap. Chiefs fans in 2022 would have wanted him to develop to this point, but many feel that the number might be too high for what he has contributed on the field.
Karlaftis was not one of the Chiefs’ priorities in the 2025 offseason, but he was a player whom they needed to extend before the start of the new season. From that perspective, they certainly deserve credit for the deal, but the value of his deal might have been too influenced by the recent inflation of the edge-rushing market.
After logging a team-high 18.5 sacks in the last two seasons, Karlaftis proved to be a staple of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense. Retaining him was key, particularly with Chris Jones aging and Mike Danna regressing to just 3.5 sacks in 2024.
However, Kansas City already picked up his fifth-year option, which locks him in through the 2026 season. With the edge-rushing market continuing to grow, the Chiefs are banking on Karlaftis’ progress to continue. If he does, his deal will seem like a steal by the time the 2027 offseason rolls around.
Karlaftis joined several of his teammates who re-upped with the team in free agency. The Chiefs previously re-signed Kareem Hunt, Marquise Brown, Mike Pennel and Marlon Tuipulotu. Most recently, they ended guard Trey Smith’s holdout with a $94 million extension just days before Karlaftis’ deal. Despite coming off a lopsided...
