Tight end Tony Gonzalez, who sat out all of the Kansas City Chiefs training camp before signing the one-year "franchise" qualifying offer days before the start of the season, has reached an agreement in principle on a long-term contract with the team.

Sources close to Gonzalez told ESPN.com on Friday afternoon that the parameters of the contract are in place. It is expected Gonzalez will officially sign the deal by the end of the weekend.

"Where the Chiefs are involved, it's never over until it's over, but I can't see this thing falling apart at this point," said one source. "But we do have some language that needs to be cleaned up, rewritten for our standards, before the contract is signed."

The contract is for seven years at $31.5 million but can void after five years if Gonzalez reaches minimal playing time benchmarks in any of the first five years. The five-year value is $21.5 million. The signing bonus is $10 million and there is an additional $1 million in incentives.

"I can confirm that this is the largest signing/option bonus in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs,'' general manager Carl Peterson said Friday. "I don't have a problem paying players who have been productive on and off the field.''

Said Gonzalez: "I'm very happy today to get this thing done. It's great to be in Kansas City and to know that I'm going to be here for at least the next five years.''

The deal does include a stipulation that permits Gonzalez to continue a quest to someday play in the NBA, although he would have to repay a prorated share of the signing bonus if injured playing basketball.

Gonzalez, is regarded as the prototype tight end for this era. The first-round pick in the 1997 draft has good size (6-feet-4 and 248 pounds) but, far more important, speed and athleticism that permits the Kansas City offensive staff great flexibility in the way they deploy him.

A three-time Pro Bowl performer, Gonzalez, 26, has played in 80 games and caught 339 passes for 4,045 yards and 31 touchdowns. That includes having five catches for 87 yards and a touchdown in last week's opening game win at Cleveland, despite just a week of preparation.

The former University of California standout, who also played forward on the school's basketball team, was designated an exclusive "franchise" free agent in the spring. After a protracted and often acrimonious negotiation, he signed a one-year qualifying offer for $3.05 million just before the opener, with the understanding the two sides would continue to work toward a deal that would keep him with the Chiefs for the long-term.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.