Alex Okafor’s restructured deal gives Chiefs another defender in contract year
By Matt Conner
Alex Okafor’s restructured contract gives the Chiefs some extra cap space.
According to NFL reporter Tom Pelissero, the Kansas City Chiefs have figured out a way to restructure yet another contract, this time for defensive end Alex Okafor.
#Chiefs DE Alex Okafor signed a restructured contract recently that clears over $2 million off KC’s cap this year and makes Okafor a free agent next March, per source. He’s now due a max of $4.96M in 2020, including $860K in per-game roster bonuses and $2M in incentives.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 10, 2020
Okafor originally signed a three-year, $17.9 million contract with the Chiefs in free agency last offseason. The restructured deal means that Okafor will now cost the Chiefs up to $4.96 million this season, saving the team quite a bit from the scheduled cap hit of $7.2-plus million in 2020.
As for Okafor, this means that he has one more chance for a bigger payday in free agency as he turns 30 (next February). He’ll hit free agency after another season with the Chiefs, one in which he will hope to remain healthy and stay productive.
Last season, Okafor played in 10 games and made 9 starts but finished the season on injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle, an injury suffered in a midseason win over the Denver Broncos. Okafor also had an ankle injury that kept him out of multiple games. Okafor had 22 tackles, 9 quarterback hits, and 5 sacks in his lone season with the Chiefs.
With Okafor in a contract year alongside Tanoh Kpassagnon in the same financial (and football) position, the Chiefs should have two very motivated veterans aiming to rack up significant production opposite Frank Clark. That’s a very good thing for a team looking to “run it back.” Losing Okafor on the books creates uncertainty in 2021 at the position, but keeping him for the length of the deal was already in question after last season’s injury.
In the last calendar year, the Chiefs have restructured the contracts of Eric Fisher, Anthony Hitchens, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Sammy Watkins and, now, Alex Okafor.