Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has some work to do ahead of the start of the new league year at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday afternoon.
If you’re wondering why Kansas City has been inactive during the legal tampering period it’s because they are short on salary cap space. How did they get so short on cap space? It starts with the franchise tag for Chris Jones, then the contract for Chad Henne, then the contract tenders and club options for various players. It all added up on the team rather quickly.
Depending on whose salary cap accounting you refer to, the Chiefs are either over the cap or dangerously close to being over the cap. According to Spotrac, the Chiefs currently stand at $600K in cap space. According to Over The Cap, they are $6.4 million over the 2020 salary cap.
When the new league year begins the Top 51 rule also goes into effect. Prior to roster cutdowns in September, only 51 players with the largest cap hit will count towards the salary cap for NFL teams. That should help Kansas City get under the cap, but there are still moves to be made.
Today we’ll likely find out the fate of several potential cap casualties like Sammy Watkins, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and others. We’ll see contracts restructured, with some money kicked down the road in order to free up cap space in 2020. We also could see some contract extensions, with Travis Kelce being a prime candidate, lowering his 2020 cap hit significantly. All of these moves could free up space so the Chiefs can continue re-signing their own free agents and grab another outside free agent.
Whatever happens, Veach will need to get creative to ensure he doesn’t mortgage the future of this team.
