Kansas City Chiefs center Mitch Morse is expected to earn a major payday in free agency—potentially upwards of $10 million per year.
The Kansas City Chiefs are going to suffer their fair share of free agent losses. There’s no way around it. As a team hurting for salary cap space, there are not enough funds (or maybe even interest) to retain every potential player from last year’s AFC championship run.
One such player likely to leave in free agency is starting center Mitch Morse. For a team with decent depth behind on the line and a lack of funds to put in more important positions, Morse’s return would be nice but it’s also a bit of a luxury. That’s become especially clear given Tom Pelissero’s latest report that Morse could net upwards of $10 million per season on the open market.
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The Chiefs tried out center Austin Reiter in a backup role last year and he performed admirably in four midseason starts after Morse was forced out for several games due to a concussion. The Chiefs signed Reiter to a contract extension in early December as a reward for stepping in on short notice and doing so well. Brett Veach picked up Reiter on waivers from the Cleveland Browns shortly before the regular season began.
Given Reiter’s presence and the escalating cost of retaining Morse, it makes sense that the Chiefs would pass. The team has to be concerned about Morse’s recent injury history, which includes multiple concussions and a foot injury that forced him to injured reserve in 2017 as well.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Chiefs also drafted an interior lineman at some point in the draft, perhaps a prospect like Garrett Bradbury in the second round. Just as an example, if the Chiefs took Bradbury with the first of their two late second-round selections, Bradbury would count just under $850K against the cap in 2019. Together with Reiter, the pair would cost $2.3 million against the cap in 2019 and slightly more in 2020.
It simply doesn’t make financial sense to pay Morse that much money when a decent replacement is already in house and a reach for greater impact and potential costs so little in the draft. That’s not a knock on Morse, who has proven to be a good or even great performer in years past when healthy. Instead, it’s the story of a team that has greater needs to address and other options that work well enough to move on.