Around the league in 32 plays

It’s Friday, Addicts, and that means another weekly round up of NFL news and rumors.  For those of you that noticed the slight change in the title, I’m just kicking something new around.  Feedback is appreciated.  If you didn’t notice it…well, then I guess the feedback is that you didn’t really notice.  If you have anything to add to that though, feedback is still appreciated.

More from Kansas City Chiefs News

• Former Chiefs cornerback in legal trouble in Las Vegas
• Chiefs news: Travis Kelce wants to host fan ‘chug-off’ in Germany
• KC Chiefs send Dave Merritt to NFL coaching accelerator
• Creed Humphrey lands on PFF’s Top 25 Under 25 list
• Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams prove themselves away from star quarterbacks

Holy hell, what a week!  It seemed like I couldn’t step away from the computer without getting some kind of an alert about a new story or rumor breaking.  End result?  It’s almost midnight and I’m still putting this thing together (sorry Matt).

The news this week covers just about everything you could imagine, including the return of “Deflategate” (my thoughts on that later).  And with almost every team having some big news, there was no shortage of good stuff for this week’s ‘Lead Story’.  However, given that this is the real start of the offseason, and that this is a Chiefs blog, I’ve decided to make this week’s lead all about the Chiefs current offseason outlook.  There were plenty of reports on what the Chiefs are doing right now, so I’m going to try and give a bit of a comprehensive look at it all…

Lead Story: John Dorsey Is About To Earn His Salary

Chiefs fans have gotten a bit antsy in recent weeks as the first of several deadlines came upon us…the Franchise Tag.  It was the general assumption that Eric Berry was the prime candidate for the Tag, but there was also good reason to think the Chiefs could work out his new deal and possibly use the tag on someone else.

However, the deal did not get done and Berry is currently listed on the franchise tag at just over $10 million on the salary cap.  A lot of fans have voiced displeasure over that, but it was the originally expected outcome.

On the Free Agency front, the Chiefs have made it known that they are already working with Tamba Hali, Jaye Howard, Derrick Johnson, Dontari Poe, and Tyvon Branch for new deals.  Hali is currently the priority there because the deadline for a new deal with him is today due to a void clause in his current contract.  If his contract is allowed to void, it’s a $4 million dead money hit which would be pretty embarrassing for a team trying to re-sign a guy who has already shown he’s willing to be very team friendly.

There has not been any mention of re-signing either Sean Smith or Jeff Allen.  Recently, there has been some talk regarding how much Smith would get in free agency.  Spotrac priced him in the $8 – $10 million range, but Joel Corry at CBS has him down as coming in around $11 million per year.  I’m going to have to side with Corry on this (and I think even he might be on the low side).  As for Jeff Allen, well, John Dorsey has made it a habit of letting offensive linemen with injury histories walk…Branden Albert, Geoff Schwartz, and Rodney Hudson can all attest to that.

All of this leads many Chiefs fans to wonder just how the team is sitting financially.  The answer?  Pretty good.  Even with Berry on the Franchise Tag, KC has over $22 million to spend right now, which should be more than enough for the first year cap hits of Hali, Johnson, Branch, and at least one other player.  In addition to that, if the Chiefs can get a new deal done for Dontari Poe, it won’t be much of a hit to the cap this year because he’s already listed at $6 million due to his fifth-year option clause.

That puts John Dorsey in excellent shape to get most of the top free agents back under contract.  On top of that, the Chiefs still intend to sign Berry to a new deal, which means his salary cap hit will come down significantly when that happens.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chiefs decide to use the difference there as the “in season fund” and potential rollover for 2017.

Now, that might not be enough to convince many of you.  But just remember this…the Chiefs had very little cap space in 2015 and were still able to re-sign Justin Houston and bring in Jeremy Maclin on big deals.  Their first year cap hits were $5.1 million and $3.4 million respectively.  So yes, the Chiefs have plenty of cap space to get their people re-signed and even potentially be players on the open market.

Next: Arizona Issues RFA Tenders