It is that time of year again around the NFL. As teams look forward to free agency and the draft, they must decide which players are worth keeping around—and how much that will cost them. It is not a fun time for the league. Fans and front offices—including that of the K.C. Chiefs—alike feel for the players who will be cut in the subsequent weeks and it seems like this year may be harder than most.
Just texted with an NFL head coach about the upcoming cuts and what he expects…
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) March 3, 2021
“It’s going to be a massacre next week all around the league”
The salary cap currently sits at $180,500,000, a fairly large drop from last year’s total at $198M. This cap is likely the driving force behind the assumption that the next few weeks will see many players without jobs.
According to Over The Cap, the Chiefs currently find themselves at $23,792,376 over the current limit. There is a decent chance that the Chiefs will have some surprise cuts in the subsequent days. There are other ways to lower that number, and we have seen other teams like the New Orleans Saints aggressively convert salary into bonus which lessens the cap number.
Who might the Chiefs look at to clear salary-cap space?
Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones and others are all options to potentially restructure in the near future, so keep an eye out for that. Given these possibilities, the savings accrued by cutting players does not need to add up to $23 million, making that number less scary than it looks.