Chiefs Add Safety Justin Reid

Former Texans Safety Signing for 3 years $31.5 million with $20 million guaranteed

The Chiefs’ first free-agent addition in 2022 is adding to their defensive backfield. Justin Reid played for the Houston Texans for the past four seasons and at 25 represents a much younger starter at safety than Tyrann Mathieu would have been heading into the season.

Full numbers on the deal are yet to be determined at this point but we do the following:

Aaron Wilson @AaronWilson_NFL

Source: Chiefs' deal for former Texans safety Justin Reid is three years, $31.5 million and includes an $11 million signing bonus

Aaron Wilson @AaronWilson_NFL

Chiefs signing former Texans safety Justin Reid to a three-year, $31.5 million contract that includes $20 million guaranteed, according to a league source

With those two tweets we can see the Chiefs have moved on from safety Tyrann Mathieu. What can we get from this information on the 2022 cap number?

Based on $11 million signing bonus on a three-year deal that means it prorates to $3.6667 million a year. Figuring most of the guarantees are in the first two years you would figure that his salary for 2022 is low maybe even as low as $1 million to $1.5 million. This would keep his cap number close to $5 million in 2022.

That would also mean that he’s likely due another $8 million or so guaranteed in 2023 which means his cap number is likely close to $11.6667 million in 2023. That would leave the last $11.5 million as salary in 2024 and another proration of $3.6667 in 2024 for a total cap hit of just over $15 million.

Update with contract details

The deal that was signed has a $1,035,000 base salary and a $15,000 workout bonus for 2022. His signing bonus is actually only $10.5 million so it spreads at $3.5 million a season. The cap number for 2022 is $4,550,000.

For 2023 his cap number rises to $12.7 million mainly because of a $8,950,000 guaranteed salary. He also has a workout bonus of $250,000.

In 2024 his cap number will be $14,250,000. He has a base salary of $9,900,000 and a per-game roster bonus of $510,000 with a workout bonus of again $250,000. Nothing past 2023 is guaranteed.

The exciting part of this signing is seeing tweets like this about the Chiefs first signing:

Connor Rogers @ConnorJRogers

Feels like the steal of the day https://t.co/HK7mAO1IWS

Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter

Former Texans’ S Justin Reid intends to sign a three-year, $31.5 million deal that includes $20 million guaranteed with the Kansas City Chiefs, per source.

Matt Miller @nfldraftscout

Really like this signing. https://t.co/S79deBWQc7

ProFootballTalk @ProFootballTalk

Justin Reid will sign a three-year, $31.5 million deal with Chiefs. https://t.co/eHcUFQigmd

Ted Nguyen @FB_FilmAnalysis

Good signing for KC https://t.co/z5gTRI5P3W

Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter

Former Texans’ S Justin Reid intends to sign a three-year, $31.5 million deal that includes $20 million guaranteed with the Kansas City Chiefs, per source.

Warren Sharp @SharpFootball

S Justin Reid is an extremely impressive young man who could thrive with a better team around him after leaving the Houston Texans for the Kansas City Chiefs

Sounds like this could be a great signing by the Chiefs and Reid has the ability to step into some of Mathieu’s shoes already when it comes to leadership according to Matt Derrick:

Matt Derrick @mattderrick

It seems appropriate the Chiefs are replacing Tyrann Mathieu with Justin Reid, both on and off the field. Reid was the NFLPA community MVP in Week 1 for raising money and goods for Hurricane Ida victims and was Texans’ Walter Payton Award nominee in his fourth season.

More to come as the Chiefs continue to bring in more players. I will also update the contract information when it becomes available!