Kansas City Chiefs: How defensive contracts will affect roster battles

Defensive Line

The defensive line doesn’t have many anticipated camp battles. Veterans Chris Jones and Allen Bailey return as base 3-4 defensive ends with free agent signing Xavier Williams and rookie Derrick Nnadi likely to fill the interior run stopping spots. Since the Chiefs like to rotate their defensive linemen, there is definitely room for some of the other guys to earn playing time as well. Here’s the list.

The candidates:

Chris Jones

Age: 23
Last year under contract: 2019
Post June 1 cut? $1 million saved

Allen Bailey

Age: 29
Last year under contract: 2018
Post June 1 cut? $6 million saved

Xavier Williams

Age: 26
Last year under contract: 2019
Post June 1 cut? $45k saved

Derrick Nnadi

Age: 22
Last year under contract: 2021
Post June 1 cut? $480k saved

Jarvis Jenkins

Age: 30
Last year under contract: 2018
Post June 1 cut? $130k saved

T.Y. McGill

Age: 25
Last year under contract: 2018
Post June 1 cut? $705k saved

Justin Hamilton

Age: 24
Last year under contract: 2018
Post June 1 cut? contract not factored into salary cap

Dee Liner

Age: 24
Last year under contract: 2020
Post June 1 cut? contract not factored into salary cap

The Chiefs also currently have 29-year-old Stefan Charles under contract, but as of my typing this his contract details are not available. However, the fact that they have signed Charles three different times since January probably doesn’t bode well for his long term status with the team (think the defensive line’s version of C.J. Spiller).

There isn’t a lot to digest with this group. Yes, cutting Allen Bailey could save the Chiefs a pretty big chunk of cap space as he enters his last year under contract, but there just isn’t enough proven depth behind him to make that seem very likely. The Chiefs would likely have to have a couple of young guys just blow them away at that position to even consider it. I think Jones, Bailey, Williams, and Nnadi are pretty much locks to make the team. That puts Jenkins, McGill, Hamilton, Liner, and Charles competing for a couple more roster spots.

Another thing to consider is that I didn’t factor Tanoh Kpassagnon and rookie Breeland Speaks into this group either since they are technically outside linebackers. However, if the Chiefs feel that either or both could play some inside it could mean that they will only keep one additional true defensive lineman after the four “sure things”.

Next let’s start looking at the linebackers.