Without much salary cap space, Chiefs will need creativity to manage roster in 2020
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, especially when it comes to the NFL salary cap.
The Chiefs might very well have to live by that motto on making roster decisions in 2020.
According to Over the Cap, the Chiefs project to have $13.7 million in available cap space. Spotrac estimates the Chiefs to have $16.5 million in cap space within the NFL’s Top 51 Rule, in which only the 51 largest cap numbers count toward the team’s salary cap.
To put Kansas City’s figures in perspective, the Miami Dolphins are estimated to have a league-high $93.7 million in available cap space. On paper, the Chiefs don’t have a lot of wiggle room for free agency, and the team needs a little more than $5 million to sign players selected in the NFL Draft.
Former Washington salary cap executive J.I. Halsell, however, believes the Chiefs’ projected cap figures are manageable.
“It’s definitely being creative with both the numbers aspect of this and the pure roster management aspect of it,” Halsell said in a telephone interview.
The responsibility of figuring it out falls on Chiefs general manager Brett Veach and his staff, and there’s little doubt the decision makers have hard personnel decisions on the table in the coming month.
Kansas City comes off a Super Bowl-winning campaign, but 20 players are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the start of the NFL’s new calendar year, which kicks off March 18.
Barring a re-signing, the players set to hit the open market are defensive tackle Chris Jones, defensive end Terrell Suggs, fullback Anthony Sherman, running back LeSean McCoy, defensive tackle Mike Pennel, wide receiver Demarcus Robinson, defensive tackle Xavier Williams, cornerback Kendall Fuller, safety Jordan Lucas, defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah, cornerback Bashaud Breeland, linebacker Reggie Ragland, quarterback Matt Moore, guard Stefen Wisniewski, cornerback Morris Claiborne, tight end Blake Bell, running back Spencer Ware, quarterback Chad Henne, linebacker Darron Lee and cornerback Keith Reaser.
The Chiefs also have four players scheduled to become exclusive rights free agents: tight end Deon Yelder, guard Andrew Wylie, tight end David Wells and wide receiver Marcus Kemp.
Of the pending unrestricted free agents, Jones provides the most intrigue when considering he is in line for a large pay raise. With 33 sacks over the past four seasons, including a career-high 15 1/5 sacks in 2018, Jones has earned the right to command a premium contract from the Chiefs.
Whether it comes in the form of a new contract or the franchise tag, which former NFL agent and current CBS Sports contracts expert Joel Corry projects at $16.7 million, remains to be seen. The league’s franchise and transition tag period begins on Tuesday, Feb. 25.
So, how could the Chiefs go about taking care of Jones with other roster decisions to make?
Halsell said the Chiefs could look at contracts and determine if a veteran player warrants a pay cut or a restructured deal. There also needs to be a Plan B in place in the form of a young player behind the veteran if the worst-case scenario of that player leaving presents itself.
“You need your guys still on rookie contracts to be contributors as you’re trying to make internal decisions as to whether or not you’re asking a veteran to take a pay cut, whether or not you’re going to do an extension to reduce a veteran’s cap number or do some reconfiguration of their contract,” Halsell said. “You also need to assess if that player, if we can’t come to an agreement on making that veteran player’s cap number, do we have a young player on the roster that can back-fill that player.”
There are players on the Chiefs’ current roster that could be approached to restructure their individual contract to provide some form of cap relief.
During a text message exchange, Corry pointed to two immediate candidates.
“Frank Clark is the most obvious restructure candidate because of his $22.7 million cap number,” Corry said. “Sammy Watkins can’t stay at a $21 million cap number.”
After trading for Clark last offseason, the Chiefs signed the defensive end to a five-year deal worth $105.5 million with $63.5 million in guarantees. Clark responded with 37 tackles, eight sacks and 14 quarterback hits during the regular season, and then found his game-wrecking stride in the playoffs with nine tackles, five sacks and seven quarterback hits in three games.
Watkins joined the Chiefs in 2018 on a three-year, $48 million deal. While the wide receiver came up big in the Chiefs’ run at the Super Bowl, totaling 14 catches for 288 yards and a touchdown during the postseason, his regular-season production over the past two seasons arguably hasn’t matched the lucrative contract.
Since signing in Kansas City, Watkins has appeared in 24 games, missing eight games with injuries, and produced 92 catches for 1,192 yards and six touchdowns, an average of 46 catches for 596 yards and three touchdowns per season.
The restructuring possibilities aside, the Chiefs have another major transaction looming on the horizon surrounding Super Bowl MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is eligible for a contract extension in 2020.
Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in Miami during the days leading to the Super Bowl that “there will be a right time sometime in the next 12 to 15 months” to extend Mahomes, before adding “it’s a priority to get him done.”
While the Chiefs’ current cap situation doesn’t appear in the best of shape on the surface, Halsell emphasized a little imagination can get the team through most situations.
“You can always work the contract structure to fit your salary cap situation,” Halsell said. “I’ve never subscribed to the notion that the salary cap precludes us from doing a deal with a certain player, whether it’s a quarterback or another player at another position. You can always do the structure where the cap number is really low here in 2020.”
In the meantime, Veach undertakes the task of keeping the foundation of a championship team intact.
Realistically, the Chiefs won’t be able to keep everyone scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. And the roster should experience personnel turnover as is the case with every team around the NFL during the offseason.
But the limited salary cap space shouldn’t completely deter the Chiefs from making moves.
“They can make it work with the current cap situation,” Halsell said.
All it takes is some creative thinking.
