Grading Nick Bolton’s $45 million contract with Chiefs

The Chiefs lost Super Bowl 59 to the Philadelphia Eagles, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still the team to beat in the NFL. The Chiefs have won three Super Bowls and been to two more over the last six years. That run started because of a dominant offense that is led by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

Those two had to carry a heavy burden because the team’s defense was sub-par. That started to change over the years, though, and Kansas City has since established one of the best defensive units in the league over the last few years. Nick Bolton was a big reason for that improvement. The MIKE linebacker from Missouri has been a starter since basically day one, starting 53 of his career 57 games.

He has racked up 458 combined tackles during that time because of his prowess as a run-stopper. Bolton is somewhat undersized, but he diagnoses plays quickly and has incredible anticipation. This, along with his winning experience, made him one of our top-ranked free agents for the 2025 pool before he was locked up to a new deal.

While Bolton isn’t the greatest off-ball linebacker when it comes to coverage, he isn’t horrible in that regard, either. The Missouri project entered the league young, and he still has time to grow, too.

Grading Nick Bolton’s contract with the Chiefs

While it was certainly nice to have Bolton on a bargain of a contract over the last few years, it was smart to lock him up for the foreseeable future, even with it costing the team a pretty penny. This was far from an overly priced contract, either. Roquan Smith, for example, has a deal with the Baltimore Ravens that pays him $100 million in total.

Bolton isn’t the level of player that Smith is, but he is still one of the better off-ball linebackers in the sport. You can even argue that the Chiefs got Bolton back on a discount. He signed an identical contract in terms of years and total value to Jamien Sherwood, a linebacker who re-signed with the New York Jets just days earlier.

Bolton has far superior production, though. The two entered the league at the same time, yet Bolton has 223 more combined tackles and four more interceptions during his career. Additionally, locking up an important internal free agent was key for the Chiefs because of the fact that they’ve had to let a lot of their best players go in recent years.

Winning comes at a cost, and the Chiefs haven’t been able to afford everybody. Tyreek Hill and L’Jarius Sneed are two names that come to mind that the Chiefs had to move on from because of the financial implications that would come from keeping them around. When you have a core that is clearly championship caliber, though, it is important to keep as many of the key pieces together.

Clearly, Bolton works well in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s system, so bringing him back into the fold makes too much sense, especially when considering Kansas City didn’t have to overpay to lock him up before free agency officially started. Not letting him test the waters of the open market was smart, so this deal gets a stamp of approval.

Grade: A