Creating cap space for shoring up defense for 2018

[bigjosh]

I know it is looking way into the future, and neglecting 2017, but I was interested to see what kind of cap figures we could get into for 2018.

According to over the cap, the Chiefs are set to be .9M over the cap at the start of league year 2018.

This figure includes a dead money figure of 4.8M for Jeremy Maclin, and a dead money figure of .77M for Jah Reid.

There are a few players who I think have little to no chance of being on the roster next season.

Alex smith, with a cap figure of 20.6M if cut or traded would save 17M on the cap, and cost us 3.6M in dead money.

DJ, as much as I hate to say it, is done. Ending his 10.2M contract in 2018 saves 8M and leaves us with 2.2M in dead money.

Tamba Hali has a cap number of 8.5M in 2018 and would cost us 1.5M in dead money but save us 7M if cut.

So after those three we are at roughly 31.1M in cap space.

We have no big name free agents next year that we should be too concerned with resigning. I am guessing we pick up Marcus Peters 5th year option, which will keep him on the roster through the 2019 season. Dee Fords option was picked up earlier this off season and he will be a UFA at the start of the 2019 league year.

I dont think too many of our free agents stick around after this year.

Perhaps we resign Albert Wilson, Anthony Sherman, Terrence Mitchell and Zack Fulton. Those deals shouldnt cost much more than 10M I would hope. This year combined these four players account for less than 7.5M. Maybe we resign a couple low end UFA and RFA to tenders.

So realistically we could have 21M going into free agency.

I dont know if anyone here considers Allen Bailey and Ron Parker as potential cap casualties, but Bailey would save us another 6M and Ron parker would save us another 5M.

So without those two we could be sitting pretty at 32M in cap space prior to FA with the re signings of the players mentioned before.

Players I am looking at in free agency are:

Safety Kenny Vaccaro of the saints,

ILB Todd Davis of the broncos,

ILB Zach Brown of the redskins,

CB Morris Claiborne of the jets,

These guys aren't considered "top tier" free agents, but I think each one of them could come into this defense and be an immediate upgrade for a decent deal.

I would also be looking for a 3-4 DT or DE if there were any available that were worth a shit.

That being said, with the probable release of DJ and Hali and the group of pending free agents along the D Line, if it becomes necessary to switch to a 4-3 with a new DC, this would be a decent year to do it.

What do you think guys? How can we get this defense shored up prior to the draft?

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

Ford has his option picked up so he is not going anywhere. Harris is still the 2cd best TE on the squad.
Tamba and DJ are most certainly gone. The rest is not likely with the exception of Smith depending on his play.
We are tight against the cap and cutting a bunch of players and thinking you are just going to replace them all with more talented players is not likely to happen. Teams do not get improvement at ever position that they replace players year in and year out. We do not have the cap space and drafting players doesn't always work out immediately.
The problem is we lost Berry who was the key to Suttons defensive scheme and without Berry he has not been able to adjust adequately yet, if he even can. The problem is more Sutton and this scheme than the players.

Oh ffs.

Barring a substancial improvement in the result in 2017 over the last few years, the Chiefs are going to reset and get rid of pieces that aren't working.

It's about getting rid of pieces aren't working and if they don't work than they don't work, no matter how you want to slice it.

There are a lot of pieces on that Defense that aren't working like they should and keeping status quo for the sake of continuity is stupid and how they've had some really shitty Offensive Lines.

2/3rds of the front 3 isn't working along with probably 3/4ths of of the starting LB group.

The Defense got old and fell off a cliff. It sucks but **** it happens and I'd say you gotta let go before it's too late, but it's already too late for some guys.

I don't see Dee Ford, DJ, Bennie Logan, Hali and Allen Bailey being factors down the road. They just aren't cutting it.

I think people are choosing to forget that this D had struggles with Berry in the line up, down the stretch last year with the platoff collapse and one player masking the major flaws doesn't mean those flaws don't exist.

I would absolutely gut what doesn't work and get out of the financial hole, finally. Trying to glue a crumbling boulder back together isn't going to work. We have to finally pay the price for win now eventually. Can't think of a better time to turn that page.

[DaneMcCloud]

Bennie Logan stole $8 million dollars from the Clark's.

Just another in a long, long line of free agency blunders made by John Dorsey.

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Bennie Logan stole $8 million dollars from the Clark's.

Just another in a long, long line of free agency blunders made by John Dorsey.

Yep. I think you can get similar performance out of a day 2 draft choice at a tenth of the salary.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by BryanBusby

Yep. I think you can get similar performance out of a day 2 draft choice at a tenth of the salary.

Well, and it's probably too early to place judgment on Tanoh but Carl Lawson looks like a much better selection that would have seen a shit ton of playing time this season.

[penbrook]

Originally Posted by BryanBusby

Yep. I think you can get similar performance out of a day 2 draft choice at a tenth of the salary.

Can Roaches play NT? He seems like he always has energy

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Well, and it's probably too early to place judgment on Tanoh but Carl Lawson looks like a much better selection that would have seen a shit ton of playing time this season.

I think you could judge Dorsey for not getting a more impact player with that 2nd round pick after taking a guy that you don't want seeing the field for '17 in the first round

The roster was good, but not that good.

Originally Posted by penbrook

Can Roaches play NT? He seems like he always has energy

Here and there, but ideally you want someone with a little more beef as the main guy so we can start turning the tide against these bigger Offensive Lines.

[O.city]

I don't think the dl has been the issue.

The lbs aren't very good

[CupidStunt]

I swear every thread I go in people want to point out 'the' issue. It's not a singular problem. Every player on the defense eats genital warts.

[bigjosh]

Originally Posted by CupidStunt

I swear every thread I go in people want to point out 'the' issue. It's not a singular problem. Every player on the defense eats genital warts.

There are alot of issues.

2 of 3 Dlinemen are bad.
3 of 4 linebackers are bad.
3 of 4 DBs are horrible.

And any time we are in sub packages, the players brought in are liabilities.

On top of all of that, the D coordinator cant adjust, or put together a scheme that can stop any single thing particularly well. If this defense sells out to stop the run, they still give up 5 yards per carry. If they abandon the run and try to stop the deep ball, they give up 40 yard jump balls.

The last few years I have been more confident that the defense will score points than the offense. I wonder what the hell happened.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by O.city

I don't think the dl has been the issue.

The lbs aren't very good

Poor linebacker play, silly defensive alignments, lack of a pass rush, uncreative defense. That all sounds really bad but the Chiefs are 5-2 and lost by 1 point on Thursday.

The harsh reality is that the every team in the NFL is flawed, some far more than others, making it each game, once again, about matchups.

The Chiefs could end up 12-4 with the #1 seed and lose in the first round the playoffs or end up with the #6 seed and go to the Super Bowl.

This is the weirdest season in recent memory.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Bennie Logan stole $8 million dollars from the Clark's.

Just another in a long, long line of free agency blunders made by John Dorsey.

I don't think this is entirely true. He's getting push, but the reality is that Chris Jones is still not good at leveraging blocks and Allen Bailey is getting killed by single blocks.

Now add the horrific situation at ILB with DJ and Sorenson and it's a recipe for disaster.

I feel pretty good right now with KPL, Eligwe and Ragland at ILB. I really don't feel good about CB and DE.

We need to attack those 2 positions hard in the offseason.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by O.city

I don't think the dl has been the issue.

The lbs aren't very good

The D line has been good.

Houston has been asked to do things other than rush the passer. Ford has been decent at rushing the passer but very meh in everything else.

Both ILB's have been below par.

Our whole secondary takes turns sucking and impressing...

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I don't think this is entirely true. He's getting push, but the reality is that Chris Jones is still not good at leveraging blocks and Allen Bailey is getting killed by single blocks.

Bailey leads the defensive line with 372 snap counts. Chris Jones has 295 and Logan has 283.

Clearly, they're overusing Bailey because for whatever reason, Tanoh isn't seeing any snaps at defensive end. To me, it's just bizarre.

But back to Logan, I just don't think he's been effective and certainly hasn't been able to justify his $8 million dollar salary. Roy Miller has seen the least amount of snaps with 57 and the guy has only one tackle this year.

The rotation is clearly out of whack.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Poor linebacker play, silly defensive alignments, lack of a pass rush, uncreative defense. That all sounds really bad but the Chiefs are 5-2 and lost by 1 point on Thursday.

The harsh reality is that the every team in the NFL is flawed, some far more than others, making it each game, once again, about matchups.

The Chiefs could end up 12-4 with the #1 seed and lose in the first round the playoffs or end up with the #6 seed and go to the Super Bowl.

This is the weirdest season in recent memory.

Yeah pretty much


The shitty part is that the chiefs are legitimately like 2 plays from being 7-0 and basically ha omg the division locked up.

[JakeF]

There's plenty of flexibility with our salary cap, can free up 40 million easily. The key is what they do with Alex Smith. An extension frees up cap space, trading or cutting frees up lots of cap space. We already have the replacements drafted for several of our big cap guys. The biggest problem is that we need pass rushers and corners, those are difficult to get.