Chiefs’ Trey Smith: ‘I love Kansas City; it’s my home’

With the legwork of free agency largely completed for the Kansas City Chiefs, the most pressing roster issue remaining is the status of star right guard Trey Smith. The Chiefs opened the offseason by unexpectedly giving Smith the franchise tag (at a one-year salary of $23.4 million). Smith officially signed the offer on March 10.

Smith joined host Kay Adams on Monday’s episode of “The Up and Adams Show” on FanDuel Sports Network. Speaking from a workout in Frisco, Texas, Smith seemed more concerned about hosting an upcoming youth football camp in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee, as well as attending this weekend’s NCAA basketball tournament match between his alma mater, the Tennessee Volunteers, and the Kentucky Wildcats, than on his contract negotiations.

The fan favorite did reiterate his desire to remain with the Chiefs, who selected him in the sixth round of 2021’s NFL Draft.

“Ultimately,” Smith declared, “I can only focus on just working out and training. I love Kansas City — it’s my home. I love the Chiefs. The fans in Kansas City are some of the best people I’ve ever been around. Ultimately, I would love to stay there. That’s my plan.”

Smith and the Chiefs have until July 15 to agree to a long-term contract, or he will play the 2025 season on the franchise tag. Either scenario will likely make him the NFL’s highest-paid guard. No one could have predicted such an outcome as Smith fell deep into the third day of his draft class due to missing part of his sophomore season at Tennessee in 2018 after suffering blood clots in his lungs.

Smith shared with Adams advice he would give to other players who were disappointed with their draft positions.

“For me, I leaned on my faith in God delivering me out of a lot of bad situations,” he began. “I think the biggest thing is just keeping your head down and working. No matter how bleak a situation looks, no matter how bad it looks, not matter what the outlook is that someone gives you — you’ve just got to work. You’ve got to work every single day because someone’s out there trying to replace you.

“Understand that even though it’s bad now, if you keep working, there’s going to be light at the end of the tunnel. There’s going to be a success. There’s going to be a breakthrough. At the end of the day, you’ve got to put your daily deposits in. You’ve got to have swag. It’s not going to just happen. You’ve got to go earn it.”

The guard is utilizing that same mindset as the Chiefs try to move on from a devastating 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.

“It’s painful,” Smith admitted. “It’s definitely something that you don’t want to experience — getting that close, working that hard, and coming up short. At the end of the day, we’ll use that as fuel and motivation for next season. I’ll speak personally for myself; I know that wasn’t my best performance.

“For me, I’m hungry to show back up next season an even better player — a new player — and put my first step forward in a positive manner to make sure that I’m doing everything I can for my team for us to be successful. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal and objective. We all want to win that Lombardi Trophy and lift it up at the end of the season.

“We realize we got everybody’s best shot last season. At the end of the day, we’ve got to be on our A-game week in and week out. I use it as fuel and motivation for next season, for sure.”

Smith blocks for the face of the sport in quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has also repeatedly owned up to a disappointing Super Bowl performance. He is not surprised to have seen his famous teammate take responsibility as the team moves forward.

“It just shows how great of a leader Patrick is at all moments,” Smith noted. “Him taking the blame in situations, him taking accountability and credit — I know without a doubt there’s no one I trust more than Patrick Mahomes to lead a football team and get guys in the right direction. He knows that we’re backing him 100 percent every step up of the way.

“Whatever he needs, he knows he has his teammates. I would just say he’s the ultimate leader. A lot of people duck a lot of the accountability. A lot of people don’t take up for the bad times. They only take up for the good and only take credit for the great times.

“For him to step up in that situation, I’m not shocked at all. It’s a testament to his character. I know I’m riding with 15 all the way.”

Although he is coming off of his best season, which saw him named to his first Pro Bowl, Smith remained humble while discussing his individual goal for 2025 with Adams.

“I think for me, the main thing is just to be consistent,” he revealed. “Be great — but be great consistently. That’s sort of the mission I’m trying to be on. I’m trying to not just be the best I can be but just do it week in and week out and be that same great player every single week.”