Why the Chiefs are allowing Dontari Poe to hit free agency

Let’s be clear about one thing up front: the Chiefs aren’t working with a lot of cap space to begin with. Keeping every player who comes up for free agency just isn’t a reality, which means hard decisions, including goodbyes, are a part of every NFL offseason. When it comes to keeping Poe, either option before them seems cost prohibitive.

The Chiefs could technically use the franchise tag on Dontari Poe now that they’ve inked Eric Berry to a multi-year extension. This would keep Poe in house for at least the next year and allow them time to come to a long-term extension, if that’s what Dorsey wanted to do. However, it would be expensive for that single year, much too steep for Dorsey.

The franchise tag for defensive tackles last year was $13.65 million. To pay more than that for Poe’s contributions in the middle would hamstring the entire budget to the point of breaking. Poe is, at this point, simply not worth that much to play the middle, even as many snaps as he logs. The chance of further decline in play, to go with the slight decline he’s already experienced over the last two seasons, means it’s easier to let someone else pay that bill.

The same can be said of any long-term cost. Teams like the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts are hungry for an anchor in the middle, especially one with the experience and youth of Poe, and have the cap room to throw at him, even to stomach a bit of decline. Even if Poe is able to command something in the range of $10-11 million per season, it would be hard for the Chiefs to find the room. Then you add in Spotrac’s market value calculation of $12.1 million per year and it’s easy to understand Dorsey’s decision even further.