Chiefs convert portion of Frank Clark’s salary to signing bonus to clear cap space

The Kansas City Chiefs have enacted their first move in order to clear salary-cap space ahead of the 4 p.m. ET deadline. It was one of the moves that were expected and involves a defender they signed last season.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Terez Paylor, the Chiefs have converted some of Frank Clark’s 2020 salary into a signing bonus. Doing so allows Kansas City to prorate that portion over the life of Clark’s contract.

Clark was due for a $17 million base salary in 2020 and carried a $22.7 million hit against the salary cap. He’ll carry a lower base salary and cap hit in 2020, but his cap hits in 2021 ($24.2 million), 2022 ($24.7 million) and 2023 ($26.2 million) will all be increased depending on the amount of base salary the Chiefs converted to signing bonus.

The Chiefs have converted some of Frank Clark’s salary to a signing bonus, per a source. That, plus the release of Cam Erving, means they will be under the cap today.

— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) March 18, 2020

Brett Veach and his staff could convert any portion of that base salary to signing bonus, depending on how much cap space they’d like to create. Notable Chiefs fan, ChiefBearcat, illustrated on Twitter what converting salary for Clark might look like when creating $10 million and $15 million in cap space.

Ok, this shows the current structure, structure if they move 10 mil over and 15 mil over. 21 base salary becomes fully guaranteed on 3/20, so we are just counting that as guaranteed now. Last column shows the cap savings if he had to be cut. https://t.co/T9SESJlhc5 pic.twitter.com/pYShc3ST7U

— ChiefBearcat (@Chief_Bearcat) March 17, 2020

According to Kansas City Star beat reporter Herbie Teope, the Chiefs have converted $5 million of Clark’s base salary to signing bonus.

Not that @TerezPaylor or @MikeGarafolo need it, but I can confirm the #Chiefs converted $5 million of Frank Clark's base salary to a signing bonus. This transaction gives the Chiefs much-needed cap space before the start of the league's calendar year, which begins at 3 p.m. CT.

— Herbie Teope (@HerbieTeope) March 18, 2020

So does this move mean that Sammy Watkins is safe? How about Laurent Duvernay-Tardif? For now, they seem to have bought themselves more time when it comes to making decisions on cuts, trades, signing extensions and more. They can hold off on making those decisions today and work at their own pace.