How to play this off-season with free agency?
 

I don't know the cap space that well so people smarter will have to tell me what we can do. I'm just excited to see how good this team can get. All the building blocks are in place. It's a matter of how we can supplement the pieces. And I know retain the big pieces is most important.

So assuming we can keep Chris Jones and give Pat an extension, will we have any room at all in the cap to make impact additions? Keeping Sammy looks unlikely. Not sure how many of our corners we can keep?

Even if we play it perfect, will there be any cap left to add some vet free agents? It seems like a pretty strong offensive line class in free agency if we could add one or two. Or if we could add an LB (although Hitchens make a lot). Or a vet corner? Trade possibilities?

I'm just trying to get a realistic grid of what potential moves we can make. I know hitting on picks in the draft will be the biggest way to improve. But if we can get some discounted vets or something, that could go a long way into having freedom in drafting more luxury picks.

We have around 17 mil in cap space. We won’t sign any flashy free agents. Look for value signing like Damien Wilson was or a Mike Pennel. Pat will get paid and gotta re sign Jones then do something about Watkins

Jones ain’t coming back. Trade him and take picks with immediate value.

It’s been reported by plenty of people that Jones will get tagged if no long term deal is reached. He will be here next year

Does Pat's contract count against the cap this year or next if extended? I heard the new CBA might have a clause to make QB contracts separate. Any chance to restructure contracts or get discounts? I thought if we cut some people we can at least create a little space. But maybe that will still be used up just to re-sign people.

Yeah, I don't understand the Watkins situation. Whether he is trying to take a year off or get paid, doesn't sound like we can retain him. Probably not even trade in that case. But I guess we need to try to get as many picks as we can if that is our only method of improvement.

Trade Watkins or release him
Tag Jones, listen to offers, and trade if you get a good return; Otherwise extend
Sign Pennel
Sign Fuller for a reasonable number (if possible)
Keep Reiter as a back-up; draft a new starting center
Sign Wis to a 1-year deal; Wis and Rankin start at guards
Draft BPA, but hope for LB, CB, Interior OL, RB (mid-late)
Sign Vet WR

There is no way Mahomes is playing this upcoming year for 2 million dollars. Wait till the new CBA is in place then get a deal done. Either way Mahomes is getting paid this offseason. The longer Mahomes waits to sign a deal the more leverage he has. As for Watkins it’s been reported that Veach will try and retain Watkins. I don’t know how but Veach is a wizard

Reiter isn’t a FA. Has one more year left

I thought he was. Either way, find a new starter. He’s a good back up.

We need to keep Breeland around.

If we end up losing Fuller, Breeland, Watkins, and DRob, that is tough. Especially if we aren't getting picks in return or it doesn't create enough cap for replacements.

We can draft there, but we need players we know we can count on. We won't want to rely on rookies that heavily.

Sorry but that’s not happening. He wants 7-10 mil per year

I’d keep him over Jones. Jones is a one trick pony and his replacement (Pennel) is better and cheaper. Tag and trade

That’s my guess. Tag and trade Jones. You can’t pay him and you may as well get something for him.

When you have a franchise QB. Players will want to come to KC. Not like years past where game managers killed everyone’s hope.

Not necessarily. He could have a serious injury. Would think his agent wants to get the big money sooner rather than later.

Is there a way we can cut Hitchens and Fisher and save $$? If so, i’d start there.

To be fair, he is really good at that one trick. He changes the face of a game.

But I agree that we may need to trade him if it means getting some picks while also retaining the money to keep our depth. Overall, depth seems more important to the benefit our defense.

We also need to see what our players are asking for first. Because one way or another, I don't think we can afford more overpays. It has to be fair value at the least.

This is what I'm hoping for. I hope there are some good vets willing to come here on a discount.

This. He could get tagged and maybe he goes along with it but a long term deal with his value will be nearly impossible.

Even if we get him at a major discount, back-loaded contract with less up front, etc. don't see how we sign him and Pat in the next 2 years with what Pat will get (and deserves).

My guess is we trade Jones before the draft and get some value for him and free up cap space.

Who are you putting in Fisher's spot? All of their losses this season happened with him on the sideline with injury. Undefeated with him in the lineup.

According to Whitlock and Wiley they said that a former GM told them that Mahomes agent will not allow Mahomes to play next year unless a new deal is signed

Nope. Veach restructured both of their contracts

Yeah lets leave the blind side open to career injury to our 50 million a year QB. After all elite LT's grow on trees. Fish is getting older sure but he isn't out to pasture yet. Who do we have to replace on our roster?

We’re still paying Berry 8 mil this season :)

Watkins is the worst we can cut and save the most at 14 mil

LDT we would save about 5 mil

Kelce we can save 10 mil.

That’s it

Jones is most definitely coming back on a fat backloaded deal with signifcicant performance escalators and a decent bonus the first couple of years, If they do mahomes early - jones gets the tag. My prediction, we sign Jones to a five year deal worth 70 mil guaranteed, if he makes it to year five and collects all the bonuses its worth close to $130,000,000. We get to the next cba and sign Mahomes for an 7 year 40+ mil a year contract worth over 300 million dollars with incentives - more than half of which is guaranteed. It's too much money for a goddamned superbowl championship. We pay these guys too much money to play a stupid game, all that money could be going to cure cancer, fix the environment, feed people who don't have enough to eat, help those with mental illness, explore space, fix the roads, the schools or grow food. When it comes to this football shit, we are being pretty ****ing stupid. Maybe now that we won one we as chief consumers should demand lower prices for our fandom and the nfl investing in the health safety and future of the country instead of the pockets of guys who can play football good for a few years. I love the sport, I love our team, but I love America and all of her people more. These contracts, the idiotic speeches, all this other bullshit can go **** itself.

It's a smart approach, especially since he already had a scary injury this season. Goff/Wentz have set a standard that the QB has to be paid after year 3.

It's a mother****ing game, but life isn't. Too much money and hype for something that ain't that important.

If you hate it so much, why are you here posting about it? Quit wasting your time with something that doesn't matter.

Ya like Mahomes doesnt have all the leverage in the world or anything.

The main effort will be spent in who we can keep.

We have the following free agents -

CB Bashaud Breeland 28
DE Emmanuel Ogbah 26
DL Chris Jones 26
CB Kendall Fuller 25
TE Blake Bell 29
DL Mike Pennel 29
WR Marcus Kemp 25 ERFA
OL Andrew Wylie 26 ERFA
TE Deon Yelder 25 ERFA
DE Terrell Suggs 37
QB Chad Henne 35
QB Matt Moore 36
RB LeSean McCoy 32
RB Spencer Ware 28
FB Anthony Sherman 31
LB Darron Lee 25
DT Xavier Williams 28
S Jordan Lucas 27
CB Morris Claiborne 30
LB Reggie Ragland 26
C Stefen Wisniewski 31
CD Keith Reaser 29
WR Demarcus Robinson 25
TE David Wells 25 ERFA

If we are unable to re-sign Breeland and/or Fuller, we may be looking at a free agent CB.

Lot of dumb takes in this thread, like cutting Fisher, Pennel is a better player than Jones.

The cap situation is actually pretty rough and next years team may not be as good as this one.

I wouldn’t say it’s a bad situation. Most of the FAs are JAGs. Should be able to re-sign a few at reasonable rates. Let the rest walk. Tag Jones. Draft well. Repeat as champs.

We have a bunch of old players getting cut or not resigned.
Most players will take a deal favorable to KC to stay with a winner and Mahomes.
Would you leave KC and possibly get stuck playing for Cleveland or Tampa or Miami or the Jets or the Chargers or how many other teams going nowhere or down?
We will be better off than most of you realize.

You realize that makes no logical sense right? This is a game, but it is a business. All the money that funnels into that revolves around this form of entertainment. And there are tons of people that make their living from the NFL or talking about the NFL. And the more money in the hands of people, the more they have to help others. And everyone that earns their money, they have a right to do with it what they want anyway.

And guess what, all those problems you listed, throwing money at the problem won't fix them. Because if they did, it would have been done by now. People continually give to help the poor and cure illness. There is a deeper rooted issue of why it isn't fixed. Get mad at governments or big industry that halts the progress of cures for their own gain.

I'd actually argue that the NFL and other sports actually help the aid of the world's problems. Not just bringing people together and hope and all the intangible things that are most important. But they often raise awareness way beyond the scale of most with the platform they are on. Because of money. And all the millionaires related to the game that earned their money are often very charitable.

But yeah, go ahead and don't buy NFL products or watch games if you want. It is your money.

I suppose the hope is to retain most of the core and add some pieces through the draft.

I do agree. Even if we have to lose a couple pieces, we are still ahead of the majority of the league and in contention. But I just feel we are right on the edge of true domination with all these pieces in place. I hope Veach can work some cap magic and make it happen.

I really feel like we are on the edge of being near unstoppable with the right moves. I don't want to even take a small step back. I hope we can find the way to leap forward and be a historic team. Especially with our offense. Beef up the line a bit, add a couple receivers and running backs to this group and we will be cooking. Even the defense man. Upgrade the linebacker and corner back core with some dogs and we could be looking at a top ranked defense.

Hopefully we get cream of the crop JAGs after winning a SB and guys want to rebuild their career and spring board to a bigger contract here. If not we better hope we can trade Jones for some solid picks, because were short on picks and money.

I was thinking about that too. Those good players that get cut for whatever reason, we have the luxury to take chances on them for cheap. And they will likely want to come here.

Being in win now mode, I think we could even trade up again in the draft if we feel like a young franchise cornerstone could fall enough in our range. But picks being that much more important, we could also trade down. The draft is truly crucial to sustaining this success.

I dont think we can afford to trade up with so few picks and such a high demand for cheap talent. I'd say if anything make a big push for an upgrade at IOL, could give mahomes time, and rbs better lanes. We need more picks and for veach to hit on the draft again. And for Rankin to come back Strong.

Just a fanboy thought......would love to have the Kelce boys together for another run. How bout a swap for Sammy. Wouldn’t happen but that would be fun. Doesn’t sound like Sammy is interested in coming back anyway.

Rep, Rep, and more Rep. Great post.

That's one of my dream targets. He even plays at a position we need. Would be so cool to see them together. Jason is getting older. But I think our only chance to get him would be in a couple years when his contract is expired and he is cheaper.

Other dream targets would be AJ Green or Chris Harris Jr. Both are getting older, but still probably out of our price range and unlikely. I don't know if trades are possible. I've seen some speculation that Green could get 18 mil a year? I would have guessed closer to 10. If that is the case, the overpays are tough. Not even sure what Chris Harris Jr. will command. But probably a lot in this market.

Sign Ricky Stanzi.

We also need a back up guard. Sebastian Janikowski would be worth looking into as well.

I seriously doubt you're going to see any big name FA.

We'll be doing well to keep most of the guys we want to keep as it is.

There will be some bargain hunting, and the draft.

That'll be about it.

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For Jones to stay here....he’s going to have to give us a discount.

I’d trade him for a first and a mid-late round pick OR an upper half first round pick.

I hope we don’t give into some bullshit where we get a 1st and a 5th for Jones and a 4th or something like that.

We have all the leverage here. We don’t have to trade him. We don’t have to extend him.

Trade Watkins.
Cut Reiter and Erving.
Colquitt retires or gets cut.
Restructure Clark.
Extend Pennel, Robinson, Sherman and Ogbah.
Hopefully extend Jones. Otherwise tag and trade.
Extend Mahomes.

Getting back most of our IR guys will in itself improve us. To me keeping Fuller and Breeland is more critical than Jones at least from a cost perspective. If both Ogbah and Okafor come back healthy we have some really good line depth. We can’t pay Jones 20 mill per year.

He literally told rich Eisen that he would. Why listen to these “insiders” anyways. Veach literally does stuff before anyone knows it. The Jalen Ramsey stuff everyone said we were interested and we clearly weren’t. Mathieu was gonna go to another team it was reported until Veach pulled his big dick magic and got him here. Chiefs run a tight ship. Expect the unexpected

Breeland is not coming back, a dude that signs a 1 year 3 mill deal is looking to get paid. He lost that contract with Carolina a couple years ago, he's looking to get paid period.

The reality of this situation is...Watkins, Jones, Fuller, Breeland, LDT and honestly Colquitt and Sorenson may all be gone now, unless they are willing to take less money or redo deals because well we have some issues.

Ha, exactly. People act like LT's grow on trees. We saw the product when Fisher was out and it wasn't pretty.

Is he the best LT in the game?.... No. But he's definitely top half. Our bigger need on the OL is not the tackle spot, it's improving the interior.

Fortunately, that can be done more cheaply, or in the draft.

The Seahawks have cap space, a late first round pick, and they're an NFC contender that needs pass rush help. Plus there's already a Tag/Trade relationship between the two organizations in last year's Clark deal.

Hopefully Jones wants to stay in KC enough that he'll take a team friendly deal that KC can afford. It's much easier to think that's a possibility as a fan when it's not my bank account missing out on the money.

You just cut the teams only backup OT and their starting C who makes like 2 million dollars, I just don't see them doing that.

We could always draft Hakeem Adeniji from Kansas late to be the back up swing tackle. He’s a good athlete with good size and extremely durable. Maybe he can start someday. We could definitely use better tackle depth though...we saw that this year.

Reiter would be a great back up center. I would draft his replacement though.

While I think that sounds great in theory, this team is likely going to go into the offseason/draft needing 2 CB's a OLB that plays and a WR, so it's not going to be easy to fill all these spots and do it cheaply.

Something else to remember, George Kittle is getting ready to get paid...that is going to cause Kelce who is coming to the end of his deal to basically ask for a new contract...

Don't care. Finally have the QB. Everything else will sort itself out.

Chris Jones situation is indeed stressful guys, but I’m choosing to not stress it.
After last off-season, I have complete faith in Brett Veach and Spags. 100%.

Assuming that we do trade Jones, I think the plan would be for more volume. Get Ogbah back and have Clark, Okafor, Tanoh, Ogbah, Speaks as a possible redemption ala Tanoh 2.0 and likely another addition there.

If you trade Jones for a 1st and a 5th (or something like that), I think we’ll have ample opportunity to hit our needs.

We might also be smart to trade down with one (or both) first round picks to get more picks.

With the way we drafted last year, I have total faith in Veach/Reid to find parts throughout the draft. It’s supposed to be a very strong year for CB and WR.

It's just not a super easy thing to do as young players generally take time, do you think Hardman is ready to start?

I think there's also a very good chance that this was the last season Mahomes has a veteran backup also.

Is it true that Jones has 0 postseason sacks? And he wants 20 mil?

If he won't take a reasonable deal, tell him to get f***ed. No selfish overpaid schmucks are going to derail this train.

When he knows he can get 20+ mill a year on the market why should he ask for less?

If someone offered you that kinda money to do what you do, you'd leave your current job. It's a business, especially for Jones who hasn't gotten paid yet.

At this point in the season, it's in both KC's and Chris Jones' interests to say that he will be back next season. Happens all the time in this league to try and extract maximum value on a trade offer. I wouldn't put much stock at all into what Veach says about Jones right now. Nor would I put much stock at all into what Jones says about wanting to stay here. Cash rules everything and this is a business.

Hardman is going to have to be ready. Hopefully he spends the offseason working with Tyreek.

If his year 1 to year 2 improvement is anything even close to Tyreek’s, then yes he’ll be ready.

Just be rational about it...Chris Jones and Sammy Watkins aren't coming back, if we were looking at another team we'd be saying that.

Sacks don’t really matter in the post season. Jones single handedly won that game for us with 4 batted ��

I think Hardman is ready to play. I saw nothing that would suggest otherwise. That said, I'd also probably draft another WR in a deep draft like this, and I'd be looking to find a 1 year veteran rental. Got to think KC would be an attractive spot for a vet looking to put up big numbers in hopes to chase in afterwards. There are plenty of guys I think could pair well with Hill and Hardman, guys like Robby Anderson and Breshad Perriman could be poor mans Watkins. Or there are guys like Cobb or Sanders, who have played with guys like Rodgers and Manning who know how great it is to play with a QB like Mahomes.

Trade both. Watkins could have value to a team with major WR needs like the Eagles. He’s better than anyone they could reasonably hope to find in the second round. They can then negotiate a paycut/extension.

No, I wouldn't take more money to go to a less rewarding situation (assuming I already had more than enough).

And I know I'd be in the minority among these greedy bastards, but I'd definitely be the type to take a big hometown discount to stay with Reid/Mahomes and build a dynasty.

The d-bags need to realize that they're already far wealthier than they have any right to be.

If you thought you had a chance to get paid 1 time, you'd take the most you could get. It just blows my mind that anyone thinks these guys should take less than their market value.

If you think that's the case then teams that win should never lose FAs.

If we trade Jones we damn well better be looking at pass rush with the pick we get for him.

You’re right, but that doesn’t mean Jones agrees. If he won’t give us a discount, then he needs to be traded.

We can’t have another big contract like that right now. I love the player, but we do have limitations.

Eric Berry & Anthony Hitchens are taking up about $21M of cap space for 2020 season. That’s brutal.

How are they wealthier than they have any right to be? The NFL is a business. They don't play the games just for fun.

We're hitting a point where we can't have high priced backups and we have to pick and choose who are cornerstones are...

They chose as an organization that it's Mahomes, Hill, Kelce, Clark and Mathieu...if you drop another huge contract in there you are going to have some serious problems.

Hitchens is here at least 2 more years, there is no out of that contract.

Even if we roll into next season with our DL as:

Okafor-Nnadi-Pennel-Clark

Bench-Saunders, Kpassagnon, Speaks

That’s still well above average. Nnadi, Saunders, Kpassagnon, and Speaks should all continue to get better. Clark will be fully healthy.

That would assume that we don’t bring anyone new in.