Chiefs rumors: Dee Ford fails physical which guarantees 2018 contract

Now there is no question as to whether or not Dee Ford will be with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018 with the news that his contract has become guaranteed.

A major question mark still hanging over the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason was the “will they or won’t they?” decision about Dee Ford’s future with the team. The Chiefs bought themselves time to think about things when they exercised his fifth year option, but they also set themselves up for the sort of automatic scenario that’s playing out now: a guarantee in case of injury.

When the Chiefs said they wanted to hold the keys to Dee Ford’s future, they opened themselves up for this very storyline. Exercising a fifth year option on a player means that a team can decide before the new league year (March 14, in this case) whether or not they want to keep that player at a set price for the following season. It prolongs the player’s ability to reach free agency, but it does provide some security as well. If a player becomes injured, that next year is automatically guaranteed.

Thus when Dee Ford was placed on injured reserve late in the season, during a year in which he was sitting out multiple games anyway, it became a real concern that the Chiefs might not even have a choice here. Ford is owed over $8 million next year, which is plenty enough to think about potentially letting him go. But if that’s not a choice, Veach will be a bit hamstrung regarding the cap and his ability to chase more help on the open market.

If Ford can not only get healthy but live up to his draft billing, the Chiefs won’t have any complaints about losing their choice in this process. A healthy and productive Ford is exactly what the Chiefs would want out of this scenario. Here’s hoping Ford can, indeed, return in time for training camp and prove his doubters wrong with a strong final year on his contract.