Nick Foles
The Chiefs were smart to sign Nick Foles before the start of this past season. The young guys they had tried to develop just didn’t look ready for the big time and with a roster they believed could compete they needed some insurance should Alex Smith go down. I was a fan of the move at the time but now given the Chiefs cap situation it is time for them to end Foles short stay in Kansas City.
While some Chiefs fans have probably suggested that the Chiefs should save themselves some money by cutting Alex Smith and his huge contract and just start Foles, that actually would hurt KC’s cap numbers this season. While Smith has a bigger cap number this season ($16.9 mil) as I stated earlier the Chiefs would only save $9.7 million by cutting him. Foles however has ZERO guaranteed dollars for 2017. That means the Chiefs would save his entire $10.75 million dollar contract if they cut him. So the bottom line here is that the Chiefs would clear over a million dollars more in cap space by cutting Foles than they would by cutting Smith.
So long, Nick, it was nice knowing you.
This is just a no-brainer to me. The Chiefs clearly need to invest in a rookie quarterback to groom. So they start Smith for one more season while he still has a lot of guaranteed money, cut Foles with no cap hit and draft a rookie early to compete with Tyler Bray for the number two spot this season (and hopefully take over as the starter in 2018). I simply can’t see them paying a back up quarterback over $10 million dollars when they are strapped for cap space and there are no cap penalties for cutting him. This one is a done deal.