Kansas City Chiefs: Salary Cap Set for Next Season
The Kansas City Chiefs could be facing some hardships during the offseason with their salary cap issue. What does the financial situation look like for the Chiefs for the 2017 season and beyond?
With the 2016-17 regular season winding down, the National Football League has began looking forward to the 2017-18 season. As with every season, that includes a preliminary projection of the salary cap so teams can to begin to shape a strategy for the upcoming off-season.
Adam Schefter reported on Sunday that the NFL plans to inform its owners at their meetings next week in Dallas, Texas, that the salary cap for next season is expected to rise about five to six percent to between $163 and $165 million.
The actual cap set in March once the league knows its revenue figures could be higher, as the NFL usually lowballs its projections to keep teams from overspending. Joel Corry of CBS Sports projected the actual cap to be $168 million.
The problem is that half a million doesn’t leave the Chiefs with much flexibility to address in-season needs, and that $167.5 million is split between only 49 players.
According to Overthecap.com, the Kansas City Chiefs currently have just over $5.6 million of cap space, but that space quickly disappears when considering the team’s situation for next season.
The site projects the team to have contract commitments nearing $167.5 million already in line for next season, leaving the team just half a million under the projected cap of $168 million.
The problem is that half a million doesn’t leave the Chiefs with much flexibility to address in-season needs, and that $167.5 million is split between only 49 players. That leaves the Chiefs four players short of the required 53-man roster.
Additionally, $500,000 dollars doesn’t go very far in signing draft picks. Needless to say, the Chiefs are going to have to make some cuts or restructure some contracts.
When considering whether or not to keep a player on the roster solely from a salary cap perspective, there are two primary considerations. Those two factors are cap hit and dead money.
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A player’s cap hit is the combined total of their guaranteed base salary and any bonuses.
A player’s dead money is the amount of the salary cap the player would still occupy if the team were to release him.
In order for a release to make sense, the player’s cap hit for a season has to be a larger amount than his dead money.
A good example of this principle for 2017 is linebacker Derrick Johnson. The 34-year-old is now in his 11th season, and his recent Achilles tendon tear is the latest in a litany of injuries. Next season, cutting him would be less costly than keeping him on the roster, saving the Chiefs $5.25 million in cap space.
There are several other players who would be more cost efficient to release than keep on the roster next season, like quarterbacks Nick Foles and Tyler Bray.
Next: Replacing Derrick Johnson Must Come From Within
The questions of whether or not an adequate replacement at a cheaper price exists comes into play when considering many of those players whose cap hits are larger than the dead money they would represent next season, however.
There are other considerations that the Chiefs have to take into account, like locker room dynamics, when making personnel decisions. What’s clear is that the franchise has work to do in order to field a competitive squad and stay under the salary cap in 2017-18.