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