The Kansas City Chiefs entered the 2019 offseason with very little room to maneuver under the salary cap but after several moves they now have options.
It was just a month ago that the Kansas City Chiefs sat poised to begin the NFL free agency period with one of the worst salary cap situations in the NFL. The large contracts of aging defenders Justin Houston and Eric Berry combined with the pending franchise tag number for Dee Ford left the Chiefs with very little room to go out and make roster additions.
Fast forward to the present, and suddenly the Chiefs find themselves in a very different position. They now find themselves with the 12th most available cap space ($22.8 million) in the NFL after the initial wave of free agent signings (according to overthecap.com). They may have entered March with very little options on the table, but they now find themselves entering April with wide array of choices when it comes to what general manager Brett Veach wants to do next..
The Chiefs achieved their cap reversal with the release of longtime stars Justin Houston and Eric Berry. They also traded away their franchise tagged pass rusher Dee Ford. The moves of Houston and Ford freed up most of the extra space the Chiefs currently have to work with, and things will get even better on June 2nd when the Berry release goes into the books and frees up another $8 million in cap space. If you added that $8 million to their current cap dollars available it would give the Chiefs the 8th most available cap space in the NFL with over $30 million of room.
Despite the massive improvement in the cap situation the Chiefs have not sat idly by during free agency. The Chiefs only big splash signing so far was Tyrann Mathieu (who still only counts about $6 million against the cap this season). However, they did add several other players who will likely start or at very least contribute like Carlos Hyde, Alex Okafor, Damien Wilson, and Bashaud Breeland.
We can debate whether or not those additions on the defensive side of the ball—along with a new coordinator and scheme—will be enough to improve the unit, despite the loss of several of K.C.’s bigger names like Berry, Houston, Ford, and Steven Nelson. What is not up for debate is how much cheaper against the cap the Chiefs new batch of players are compared to what they would have paid to keep last year’s roster intact.
So what will Veach do with his newfound cap freedom? Well, for the first time in several years the Chiefs have some options. The first one is using their current space to go out and add another big time player.