The Kansas City Chiefs do not have a salary cap issue

Despite what you might hear from fans or NFL analysts who have no clue what they are saying, the Chiefs have no salary cap issues whatsoever.

Picture this: Someone sees you eat a complete meal and then ask if you are still hungry. When you answer that you’re not, they begin to circulate rumors that you have appetite issues.

There’s a silly rumor circulating these days about the Kansas City Chiefs, specifically that they have salary cap issues. They’re “over” the cap for next year already on paper, and fans and NFL analysts alike have ran with that “fact,” saying that the Chiefs are going to have a hard time fielding a competitive team or filling roster holes in such a poor financial state.

It’s because of quick online posts like these:

Let’s be clear: I love Over the Cap and Jason Fitzgerald is a great, informative follow. He’s simply reporting the facts as they are in the present. The Chiefs, on paper, are not in good financial shape heading into the offseason.

But back to that analogy. Someone who is not hungry right now will still want to eat later. What is full now will be empty later. For some unknown reason, however, Chiefs Twitter continues to insist that their favorite team will remain full—full of bad contracts and poor financial decisions.

The reality couldn’t be any farther from the truth. With a few quick and obvious decisions, the Chiefs can create tens of millions of dollars. With a few slightly more difficult decisions, they could create tens of millions more. And if they really want to make some hard calls, they could even create tens of millions more beyond that.

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If that sounds pie-in-the-sky, you’ve not been paying attention. The well-rehearsed plan of quarterback succession has went perfectly for the Chiefs and the final scene is to trade away a veteran quarterback coming off of a career season in Alex Smith. That alone creates the NFL’s version of financial heaven (and saves $17M), which is having your starting QB on his rookie deal.

Beyond that, it’s a no-brainer to cast aside veterans who are slower or less effective than ever. Saying goodbye to Derrick Johnson? Hello, $8 million. Tamba Hali? That’s another $7.7 million. Darrelle Revis? $4.5 million.

Ready for the Dee Ford experiment to be over? You’ll create nearly $9 million in room. Ready to go with youth instead of another year from Allen Bailey and/or Ron Parker? That’s another $6 million and $5 million respectively. Or put together a few more obvious choices like Demetrius Harris, Frank Zombo and Charcandrick West and create the $6 million you need right there. Make it a post-June 1 cut and suddenly Dan Sorensen will save you another $4 million.

At this point, we’re nearing $70 million in cap space, a silly total, to be sure, and one that the Chiefs won’t need to approach by any means. But not a single player mentioned above is irreplaceable. Instead, the Chiefs have built a bright young core with impact players at multiple positions and yet they will still have as much money to shop this offseason as they’d like.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is fake news.