I can't be the only one blindsided by this.
Now the Chiefs are showing -$3m in cap space. They're going to need $10m for the draft class, and $20m for OBJ if they extend him or keep the tag. They're probably also going to extend Sneed this offseason -- Sneed costs us about $2.5m in the last year of his deal, and
the deal Charvarius Ward signed ran a first year cap hit of $3.8m, and I'd put them on about the same level, so that's a cap hit of $1m larger.
That's about $34m the Chiefs will need to somehow cover? What's the solution there?
Clearly cutting/reducing Frank Clark will save the team $20-21m, depending on if we cut him or basically give him the same deal we gave him last year, which was to sign him for $1m more than the dead money for cutting him.
That brings us down to $13-14m over the cap. Restructuring Jones would probably get the Chiefs the rest of the way: lowering his $28m cap hit to $14m in his first year -- and maybe farther if the guaranteed money is high.
The Chiefs can squeeze a dollar out here or there for middle-of-the-road vets like McKinnon, Burton, Hardman if he wants back, Blake Bell, maybe Allegretti if he wants back, Nnadi, Darius Harris if he wants back, and Deon Bush. But you're pinching pennies to make some of that stuff work. If Jones takes a team-friendly first-year cap hit (and he and Veach have signed favorable deals before so long as Jones gets his), you can probably sign all of those guys.
But that does mean that a lot of other "middle class vets" seem beyond our cap space?
I don't see how this team can keep Wylie. Allegretti, maybe.
I don't see how this team can keep JuJu. Hardman, maybe.
How can this team keep Carlos Dunlap? Khalen Saunders? Juan Thornhill?
I just don't know where the money comes from unless you're pushing more Mahomes cash down the road, and I think the team just wants to take their medicine with him this year.
I don't see any realistic path by which this team can trade for a top shelf talent like Deandre Hopkins. Nor do I see how they can shell out money for literally any serious free agent, like Marcus Davenport or Keenan Allen.
The team is lucky to have 12 draft picks, and a GM who can make those picks stick.
They're probably going to have to keep all of them to make sure the Chiefs can field a deep roster to maintain last year's success.