The Kansas City Chiefs will open the 2022 NFL season just a little tight against the salary cap.
The team has assembled their 53-man roster and their 16-man practice squad. With the regular season on the doorstep, the team will find itself with little salary cap space. The Top-51 rule will expire on Tuesday, Sep. 6th at which point all NFL teams will need to be salary cap compliant. Thankfully, Kansas City isn’t one of the five teams currently projected to be in the red (Rams, Lions, Patriots, Jets and Giants).
According to Over The Cap, the Chiefs are projected as one of the NFL teams who will have less than $6 million in cap space as the 2022 NFL season begins. They’re currently sitting at $2.64 million per OTC. This accounting includes dead money, the 53-man roster, players on injured reserve and members of the practice squad. It also includes the new raise that the team gave to WR JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Kansas City also acquired some new dead money during roster cuts, totaling nearly $3 million:
- Releasing LB Jermaine Carter Jr. cost them $1.77 million.
- Releasing LB Elijah Lee cost $345K.
- Releasing DT Taylor Stallworth cost $300K.
- Waiving DT Kehinde Oginni Hassan cost $207K.
- Waiving WR Cornell Powell cost $180K.
- Waiving Jack Cochrane cost $133K.
Lee, Stallworth, Powell and Cochrane are all back on the practice squad.
With so little cap space heading into the new season, the Chiefs might think about making some moves before the start of the season to free up some cap space. They’re going to need to give themselves some breathing room for players heading to injured reserve during the season, trades and free agent signings during the season, and even practice squad elevations.
