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The Kansas City Chiefs aren't in a hurry to tie down Patrick Mahomes with a long-term extension as the star quarterback approaches free agency in 2022.

"There will be a right time sometime in the next 12 to 15 months to extend Patrick and when I say right time, I mean right time for both the player and the club," Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said, per ESPN.com's Adam Teicher. "I don't want to say necessarily it has to be this offseason but I will say that it's a priority to get him done."

Hunt added the team's goal is to keep Mahomes in Kansas City for his entire career.

Mahomes will earn $735,000 in 2020 and will see a significant raise in 2021 assuming the Chiefs trigger the fifth-year option in his rookie contract.

Whether Kansas City will eventually pay up for the reigning MVP isn't really in doubt. He threw for 4,031 yards and 26 touchdowns while helping guide the team to its first Super Bowl since 1969.

The only question is if Mahomes eclipses Russell Wilson as the NFL's highest-paid quarterback and if so by how much. Wilson averages $35 million annually, a number Mahomes will almost assuredly surpass based on how he has started his career and the general upward trend in quarterback salaries.

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Extending Mahomes won't be without consequences.

Even with the salary cap expected to climb, spending extravagantly on one position inevitably makes filling out the rest of the roster a little bit harder.

Travis Kelce, Eric Fisher, Mitchell Schwartz and Tyrann Mathieu will hit the open market at the same time as Mahomes. Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman will be due new contracts in 2023. Keeping together the key players responsible for this run to the Super Bowl will be almost impossible.

But it's a bargain the Chiefs will have to make in order to keep one of the league's premier passers.