Chiefs have difficult decisions after this season
By John McCarty
What are the Kansas City Chiefs going to do about Eric Berry and Dontari Poe after this season? We take a long, hard, honest look.
As we bask in the glow of victories and what appears to be a deep and talented football team, this offseason carries questions. Ones that not only impact next season, but could foretell changes in seasons to come. We explore what changes could be in store, namely, we look at pending unrestricted free agents Dontari Poe and Eric Berry, as well as the future of Jamaal Charles.
For a point of reference, I want to point out what limitations the Chiefs are dealing with in terms of the salary cap in the years to come. We will use the website OverTheCap.com for our salary cap referencing.
Entering the 2017 season, the Chiefs are third in the NFL in money committed towards the cap, with $166,957,345 currently ‘on the books.’ The salary cap, if increases from previous seasons holds as is expected, appears to be headed in the $166 million to $168 million area. If the salary cap is at 166 million, the Chiefs are already over the salary cap.
The 2018 Chiefs’ salary position does not appear to be that much better, as they are second in the NFL in cap commitments, currently sitting at $146,351,891 for 2018 with a projected cap number of $178,000,000. That leaves them in 2018 with a projected $31,648,109 in cap space.
And wouldn’t you know it, 2019 is better, but only somewhat. Already, the Chiefs are ninth in commitments towards the salary cap, and it should be noted, and this will come up again, Alex Smith is not a part of this number. With a projected cap number of $190,000,000, the Chiefs already have $80,045,559 committed.
The reason the Chiefs’ salary cap is mentioned and is so important in this discussion is that if the Chiefs want to bring back either Eric Berry or Dontari Poe, their contract numbers in 2018 and 2019 could be problematic. A majority of NFL contracts have much larger cap numbers in the second year and forward; and the 2017 salary cap makes the situation even more dicey.
Next, we’ll explore the franchise tag cost of both Berry and Poe, in case the Chiefs want to keep either player but are unable to get a contract done.