AT's slow news day Chiefs' salary-cap update
 

Chiefs' salary-cap update
February, 18, 2014

http://espn.go.com/blog/kansas-city-...ary-cap-update

Feb 18 2:30PM ET
By Adam Teicher | ESPN.com

Depending on what happens between now and the start of the NFL’s league year next month, the Kansas City Chiefs have a little bit of wiggle room under the league salary limit.

The Chiefs have salary commitments of $122,249,251 for their top 51 players. That’s the sixth-highest total in the league. They have 68 players under contract but only the 51 highest salaries will count against their cap when the free-agent signing period begins.

The NFL's salary cap hasn't been finalized but has been estimated to be slightly more than $126 million. The Chiefs also have a salary-cap carryover of $2,381,518 they will add to the league’s limit, buying them some extra room.

That salary total will go up or down depending on any contract moves they make. They have 11 potential free agents, including seven players who started for them last season. They have lined up backups for most of those starters scheduled to be free agents so the Chiefs appear prepared to move on without many of these players.

Among their prospective free agents: wide receiver Dexter McCluster; offensive linemen Branden Albert, Jon Asamoah and Geoff Schwartz; defensive lineman Tyson Jackson; linebacker Akeem Jordan; and free safety Kendrick Lewis.

The Chiefs could create cap room by restructuring or extending the contracts of some of their highest-paid players. Wide receiver Dwayne Bowe ($12 million) , safety Eric Berry ($11.62 million), linebacker Tamba Hali ($11.5 million) and cornerback Brandon Flowers ($10.5 million) have the largest individual salary-cap figures.

Flowers is scheduled to make $11m next year. Sean Smith is scheduled to make $8m. Dwayne Bowe is scheduled to make $14m... yeah. I think Hali's goes up to $12.

We've got a couple years in cap hell, that's for sure. The good news is, that'll basically force us to keep building through the draft.

Because no one can be restructured :rolleyes: Cap hell doesn't really exist.

ehhh, you could probably make the argument that the Cowboys are definitely cap hell. 32 million over the cap? They are going to have to cut a lot of talent just to get under.

We aren't in bad shape at all. Not great but not bad. More, meh.

"AT's slow news day Chiefs' salary-cap update"

What does "AT's" stand for?

So... Byrd? Really, though... How much will just one free safety help our secondary? As much as I'd like Byrd, and I really do, we need help elsewhere as well.

Adam Teicher.

Any chance that Dorsey could pull off a Suggs-like extension with Hali? Would save us a bunch of cap space and allow us to keep a solid player as either a full time starter or situational depth guy for the rest of his career; allowing us to draft someone to develop and eventually take over for Hali.

You keep repeating this and it isn't true.

Once Smith is extended that will free up some money. David Canter told me the Chiefs are close to being contenders they'll sign some guys while extending Smithand re-doing some deals. This isn't Joel Thurman saying this its an agent who knows the business.

Exactly. I thought, based on comments, that we'd be in much worse shape. The only guys I want back are Dex and Schwartz. Maybe TJ IF he's DIRT CHEAP.

Is Jason Hatcher a free agent? Would he be someone for a 3-4 defense?

Not a big fan of this. It essentially means you will overpay Hali in his twilight years, which I think are very quickly coming. It's why we shouldn't get too carried away with restructuring just because you can.

Berry makes sense because you want him to be extended. With Hali as soon as hehe'sno llonger pro bowl material, I either want him completely off the books or to take a major paycut. With older guys, it sometimes makes sense just to rip the bandaid off instead of slowly peeling.

Teams that get carried away with this basically load up for a super bowl run. Teams like Baltimore are glad they did it because they won a super bowl, but quickly realize that there are actual consequences to your spending. We essentially have a completely clean cap in 2016. If we feel like we can make a super bowl before then, then restructure away. I would rather clean up the books and give Reid and Dorsey tons of flexibility by 2016.

Baltimore did this then immediately cut like 100 guys the following year lol

Bet Miles Austin gets cut.. Has really done nothing since he last played the Chiefs when he beat them in OT.

They also signed Chris Canty, Elvis Dumervil, Micheal Huff and traded for Eugene Monroe.

Less money under the cap means less money to spend on FAs.

Teicher

I'm not sure extending Hali is a good idea, he was looking pretty slow late in the season.

This team is decent without changing very much.


I agree with you.

I think this is the update part:

The Chiefs also have a salary-cap carryover of $2,381,518 they will add to the league’s limit, buying them some extra room.

1. Who the hell is David Canter and why should I care.

2. Why would giving Alex Smith more than the $7.5m he's scheduled to make this year make his cap hit lighter? We're going to have to double that.

We brought DeVito on board at $5m a year.

You're going to have to pay that to keep TJax.

Hatcher's going to stay in Dallas. He's in his twilight years and finally found a defense he can thrive in.

Suggs has a deal worth 28.5 mil over 5 years, his cost never goes over 6 mil in any of those seasons. If Hali signs a similar deal, he can easily be released if the organization feels that he is no longer worth the money at any point. I think that deal makes a lot more sense than keeping Hali at his current price tag for 2 more seasons and just letting him go. He's not a pass rusher that ever relied on superior speed to beat his opponent, he'll still be effective for a few more years, especially if we bring someone in to groom behind him and give him some rest.

David Canter is Sean Smith & Eric Weddles agent. He's the business and how teams work.

The longer-term you sign a player, the more he's going to cost you when you cut him.

Fair enough.

I just don't understand how paying Alex Smith twice what he's scheduled to make lowers his cap number.

we won't have a clean cap in 2015 but can't we get out of a lot of these contracts after the '14 season where it actually saves the Chiefs money and the cap hit is a lot lower, Flowers and Smith come to mind here, I think Hali in 2015 saves money as well. the Chiefs will only take a small hit in dead money, think of it like what the Saints and Falcons did where they cut like 4 or 5 veterans at a time. That could be us, next year. Rather than restructuring and extending more years, of course.

I'd love to ask him that and different questions about how this stuff works. Maybe compile some questions from CP members regarding the salary cap, free agency, and the relationship between agents and teams. It could be interesting and he's a real cool guy who's answered just about any football related question i've asked him.

Kinda surprised that Charles doesn't hold out for more money.

Well that takes care of it for me...There are only TWO guys on that list I want back...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>NFL&#39;s salary cap now projected to rise to about $130 million, up 5 percent from $123 million last year, per league sources. More $ for all.</p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/statuses/436497530520870912">February 20, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This needs it's own thread.


Get on it