Outside linebacker Tamba Hali agrees to a restructured deal with Chiefs

A longtime Chief and fan favorite will be be back in 2015.

Veteran outside linebacker Tamba Hali has agreed to a restructured deal with the club, a league source confirmed to The Star on Sunday.

ESPN’s Adam Caplan reported the news first.

Terms of the restructure are not available, but the Chiefs stood to save $9 million by releasing Hali, who had a cap number of $12 million this season, the last of a five-year, $60 million extension.

Hali is coming off a Pro Bowl season in which he finished with 59 tackles and six sacks, but there was some thought that the Chiefs might be willing to release him to create playing time for Dee Ford.

Ford, the 23rd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, spent the entire 2014 season behind Hali and Houston, which limited the amount of snaps he got, both in practice and games.

However, the restructure will provide them with protection in case Ford isn’t ready to play and also provide them with the cap relief they desire. Entering Sunday, they were approximately $1.1 million over the cap — not counting Josh Mauga’s recent extension, the terms of which have not been released — and needed to make more roster moves to get down under the cap by Tuesday.

The Chiefs can create more room by negotiating a lower salary with safety Eric Berry, who is slated for an $8.3 million cap hit but is currently battling lymphoma, and/or converting quarterback Alex Smith’s base salary to a bonus.

Other players whose release would create a sizable amount of cap space include receiver Dwayne Bowe ($14 million cap figure in 2015), inside linebacker Derrick Johnson ($5.2 million), quarterback Chase Daniel ($3.8 million) and defensive end Mike DeVito ($4 million).

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Outside linebacker Tamba Hali agrees to a restructured deal with Chiefs."