So we have to get to what number? What is within 5 percent of the cap? Is it the cap with the rollover money from last year or the original cap without it?

Chiefs have $37 million of salary cap room

As free agency approaches, Chiefs have $37 million of cap space and Bowe, Carr among players without deals.


By ADAM TEICHER

The Kansas City Star



With more than $37 million of available salary-cap room, the Chiefs have the ability to re-sign both Dwayne Bowe and Brandon Carr, their top potential unrestricted free agents. They could also sign Peyton Manning and any number of other players who might come available when free agency begins on March 13.

General manager Scott Pioli didn’t indicate whether the Chiefs would do all or any of that. But he did say the Chiefs planned to be active in free agency.

“There are a number of things we want to get done,” Pioli said. “We want to field a good football team in 2012 and also make sure we don’t do things with the cap in 2012 and 2013 that impact our ability to continue to field good football teams. So 2012 is important but you never want to look at it in a one-year-only snapshot.”

The NFL has yet to set a team salary cap for 2012 but teams are expecting it to be about the same as last year, when it was $120,375,000. The Chiefs have an extra $24,014,337 under their cap, the amount they didn’t spend under last year’s cap. So, using last year’s figure as a guide, the Chiefs have $144,389,337 to spend under their salary cap.

Salary figures provided to The Kansas City Star show the Chiefs with cap commitments totaling $107,009,195, leaving them with $37,380,142 in available salary cap space.

The Chiefs are under no NFL obligation to use all of their available cap room. Under the new collective bargaining agreement signed last summer, teams are free to spend as little or as much of their available cap space as they wish.

If they can’t come to a contract agreement with either Bowe, their top wide receiver, or Carr, a starting cornerback, before free agency begins, the Chiefs face a dilemma. They can make one player but not both their franchise player.

Such a move would effectively keep that player off the free agent market. Next season’s cost of making Bowe the franchise player would be about $9.5 million. For Carr, that number would be about $10.4 million.

“We’re hoping to keep all of our good players,” Pioli said when asked whether the Chiefs planned to keep Carr and Bowe.

The Chiefs have 19 other players who don’t yet have a contract for next season. Some, like quarterback Tyler Palko, are dispensable.

They might like to have several others back. That list would include Jovan Belcher, a starting inside linebacker.

The list of individual salary cap numbers is another indication the Chiefs are weighted to the defensive side of the ball. Linebacker Tamba Hali, linemen Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson and cornerback Brandon Flowers have the four highest cap numbers. Quarterback Matt Cassel is fifth and safety Eric Berry is next.

The Chiefs’ cap is also relatively free of waste. They have just $62,000 in so-called dead money against their cap this year. Dead money is a portion of bonus money given to players released after June 1 last year.

San Diego is the next lowest team in dead money with $228,402. The league average is about $4.65 million and the Cowboys have about $24.5 million in dead money.

“It’s called dead money for a reason, because it’s useless against your cap,” Pioli said. “It’s for players who are no longer with your football team.

“You’re never going to eliminate it completely because we’re going to make mistakes. But you want to limit that as much as possible and make your dollars useful

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/18...#storylink=cpy

When Carl Peterson made comments like this, it felt like some smarmy used car salesman trying to blow smoke. When Pioli talks, I feel as if whatever he says, the exact opposite should be believed.

“There are a number of things we want to get done,” Pioli said. “We want to field a good football team in 2012 and also make sure we don’t do things with the cap in 2012 and 2013 that impact our ability to continue to field good football teams. So 2012 is important but you never want to look at it in a one-year-only snapshot.”

...

Translation:

I'm not gonna pay Carr more than I think he is worth.

Also from the KC Star...

The NFL has yet to set a team salary cap for 2012, but teams are expecting it to be about the same as last year: $120,375,000. The Chiefs also have $24,014,337 they didn’t use against their 2011 cap that they can use in 2012.
So the Chiefs’ adjusted salary cap for 2012 is $144,389,337.
Subtracting total salary cap obligations of $107,009,195 (explained below), that leaves the Chiefs with $37,380,142 of available cap room. The top 51 cap numbers count against the salary cap.

Salary cap obligations

• Players: The Chiefs have 48 players under contract with total cap obligations of $101,941,980.

P Player Base salary Cap (inc. bonuses)
LB Tamba Hali $11,250,000 $14,500,000
DE Tyson Jackson $8,005,000 $10,755,000
DE Glenn Dorsey $5,856,000 $8,193,000
CB Brandon Flowers $5,750,000 $8,000,000
QB Matt Cassel $5,250,000 $7,575,000
DB Eric Berry $4,842,800 $5,200,500
RB Jamaal Charles $3,250,000 $4,833,333
WR Steve Breaston $2,050,000 $4,550,000
OL Branden Albert $2,717,500 $3,793,125
LB Derrick Johnson $3,000,000 $3,250,000
OL Ryan Lilja $2,100,000 $2,493,750
PK Ryan Succop $2,000,000 $2,400,000
LB Demorrio Williams $1,500,000 $2,300,000
P Dustin Colquitt $1,800,000 $2,280,000
WR Jon Baldwin $718,255 $1,716,273
LB Andy Studebaker $1,480,000 $1,530,000
RB Dexter McCluster $540,000 $1,100,000
WR Terrance Copper $825,000 $900,000
DB Javier Arenas $490,000 $848,750
OL Rodney Hudson $504,368 $796,841
LS Thomas Gafford $650,000 $741,668
LB Brandon Siler $700,000 $725,000
OL Jon Asamoah $490,000 $718,030
DB Donald Washington $565,000 $694,947
TE Tony Moeaki $490,000 $661,662
LB Justin Houston $465,000 $657,812
DE Allen Bailey $465,000 $628,986
TE Jake O’Connell $615,000 $615,000
CB Jalil Brown $465,000 $592,325
LB Cory Greenwood $540,000 $566,250
DB Kendrick Lewis $490,000 $541,725
WR Jeremy Horne $540,000 $540,000
DB Kyle McCarthy $540,000 $540,000
QB Ricky Stanzi $465,000 $528,763
DT Jerrell Powe $465,000 $492,670
OL Steve Maneri $490,000 $490,000
DL Brandon Bair $465,000 $467,333
LB Caleb Campbell $465,000 $465,000
OL Darryl Harris $465,000 $465,000
OL David Mims $465,000 $465,000
DL Anthony Toribio $465,000 $465,000
LB Cameron Sheffield $415,000 $463,612
LB Gabe Miller $390,000 $450,625
FB Shane Bannon $390,000 $390,000
OL Rob Bruggeman $390,000 $390,000
RB Shaun Draughn $390,000 $390,000
WR Jamar Newsome $390,000 $390,000
DL Lucas Patterson $390,000 $390,000

• So-called “dead money”: NFL teams are obligated to count bonus money given to players released after June 1 against their salary cap. The Chiefs released 10 such players last season for a total of $62,215 in dead money.

P Player Cap number
FB Shane Bannon $38,544
OL Mike Ingersoll $4,667
TE Charlie Gantt $3,334
OL Davis Mims $3,334
DE Lucas Patterson $3,334
LB Amara Kamara $2,667
OL Butch Lewis $2,334
OL Chris Harr $1,667
CB Demond Washington $1,667
WR Josue Paul $667

• Other obligations: The Chiefs have a charge against their salary cap of $5,005,000 for incentives that were earned by DE Tyson Jackson and S Eric Berry.

Players without contracts
• The following 21 players have no contract for 2012:
RB Jackie Battle
TE Anthony Becht
LB Jovan Belcher
WR Dwayne Bowe
CB Brandon Carr
CB Travis Daniels
DE Wallace Gilberry
DL Amon Gordon
DL Kelly Gregg
RB Thomas Jones
DB Reshard Langford
FB Le’Ron McClain
DB Jon McGraw
OL Ryan O’Callaghan
QB Kyle Orton
QB Tyler Palko
DB Sabby Piscitelli
TE Leonard Pope
OT Barry Richardson
WR Jerheme Urban
C Casey Wiegmann

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/18...#storylink=cpy

Dammit free agency CANNOT start soon enough. Even if my worst fears are realized, at least I'll know.

Atleast you can live your life right now without looking and checking for updates every 53 seconds which is what will happen when FA begins.

Ugh.... good point. I guess I can't wait until it's over.

Sabby Piscitelli is without a contract?! THAT'S BLASPHEMY!!!!!

I mentioned this in the Stanford Routt thread about the way contracts actually count against the cap.

Carr getting a deal isn't going to put "1/4th of the cap in our secondary". Not even close actually, even if he were to get accelerated bonuses like Flowers.

Dorsey and Jackson are grossly overpaid.

Slacker!

The roughly 2 million they paid Orton for 3 games looks like an opulent extravagance in comparision

This part kind of stuck out to me when I read rhis article. This COULD be a sign they have been trying to set themsleves up to be in good shape financially for a long term run and have all their $ available to pay players that will be on the team. Carr and Bowe for example.

Thats smart buisness as long as they keep spending $ and start spending it on some impact FA players as well.

As soon as they start to pay the big bucks for FAs
they get accused of being cheap to run Haley out of town LOL