The Kansas City Chiefs and the rest of the NFL are now less than a month away from the official start of free agency. Last week I broke down the Chiefs cap situation and offered up some ideas for how the Chiefs could clear enough cap space to be able to make some moves in free agency. If you haven’t had a chance to read that piece yet and aren’t really up to date on the Chiefs cap situation, it might be a good idea to start there. The reason I am writing about under-the-radar free agent targets this week as opposed to big name free agents has everything to do with their cap situation.
Now, let me stress again this week that I understand that Brett Veach and his team showed what salary cap masters they are last offseason. They did an amazing job of re-signing and extending all of K.C.’s top talent without it destroying the cap situation. I have no doubt that Veach has some more shrewd moves up his sleeves this offseason, and maybe he will sign a bigger name free agent at some point. However, I think the fact that the Chiefs have lots of cap space to clear before they can sign anyone, and the fact that some of their first priorities could be bringing back a few of their own guys, means it’s probably smart to start looking for quality free agents that could be had at a more reasonable price.
Would I love it if Veach found a way to replace Sammy Watkins with Allen Robinson or brought in Trent Williams to start at left tackle while Eric Fisher recovers from his achilles injury? Sure I would. I’m just not going to put all my hopes in that happening. So over the next two weeks I’m going to offer up some more affordable signings the Chiefs could potentially make this offseason to help them get back to their third consecutive Super Bowl. This week I’ll focus on the offense and next week I’ll do the same on the defensive side of the ball.
The Chiefs should look at these under-the-radar free agent targets.
I decided to focus the offensive positions this week on wide receiver, tight end, and the offensive line. The Chiefs are obviously set at quarterback, and with Clyde Edwards-Helaire set to be the feature running back and Damien Williams’ possible return (or a Darrel Williams re-signing), I didn’t think free agent quarterbacks or running backs will be much of a focus for the team.
Let’s start with a couple options at wide receiver.