Kansas City Chiefs sign 6 players to reserve/futures contracts
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs announced that six new players had joined the team by signing reserve/futures contracts. Here’s what that means.
The Kansas City Chiefs signed six new players to reserve/futures contracts on Tuesday. The signings give the Chiefs access to promising young players and give the prospects a chance to make the club in 2017. It’s a flyer on both sides, but there are some success stories from the reserve/futures ranks, from New York Giants defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins to Chiefs running back Spencer Ware.
Think of a reserve/futures contract as equivalent to a practice squad player. When the new league year starts with the beginning of free agency, roster limits climb to 90 spots. Practice squads also disappear at this time of year. If a team wants to retain some young players without using one of their 53-man roster spots in the moment, they can sign a player to a reserve/futures contract, which allows a team to sign a player without applying that player to the current number of roster spots.
The “futures” in reserve/futures means that the player counts toward the next league year. In this instance, the 2017 league year still has yet to take effect. The Chiefs signing these six players means that they control them now and can then apply them to the 90-man roster once free agency begins. In short, these are six players who the Chiefs are interested in keeping but who didn’t warrant a roster spot just yet, a la the practice squad.