KC Chiefs: Will Dwayne Bowe Take Pay Cut to Re-sign Justin Houston

By John Viril | Feb 17, 2015

The Kansas City Chiefs today cut wide-receivers Donnie Avery and A.J. Jenkins, creating about $4.74 million in cap room. Combined with reports that outside linebacker Justin Houston‘s reps are meeting with Chiefs officials at the combine this week, this news makes me wonder if a Houston contract extension is close.

The KC Chiefs have 18 days before the league year begins, and do not have to be under the cap until March 10. That rule makes me think that general manager John Dorsey is clearing space for a specific reason.

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Add the above facts together and you start wondering if the Kansas City Chiefs are on the verge of a deal with Justin Houston.

This is, of course, speculation. But, the KC Chiefs are making these moves for SOME reason. Along with the reality that the Chiefs don’t HAVE to be under the cap for more than two weeks yet, you have to think some other move is immanent.

If Houston is not about to sign on the dotted the line, the cuts could mean that the Chiefs have had some positive discussions with reps for a free agent wide receiver they like (read Jeremy Maclin). There have been some rumors that Maclin has been seen hanging around with Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith.

While teams cannot make binding agreements with free-agents before the league year begins on March 10, we know teams have these discussions all the time—despite them technically being contract tampering.

I suspect this remains true, even though the league changed the rules to allow conversations with player reps three days before the league year begins.

The only fly in this ointment is that cutting A.J. Jenkins and Donnie Avery saves less than $5 million. With the KC Chiefs over the cap by $1.5 million after signing defensive end Vaughn Martin February 4, the Chiefs are only about $3.2 million under as of Tuesday.

All of this makes me think that the KC Chiefs are having some rather pointed discussions with Dwayne Bowe. Bowe’s $14 million cap number has to come down before next season or else he needs to be cut. Designating him a post June 1 cut, which teams can do with one player BEFORE June 1, would reduce the dead money hit to $4 million.

Clearing $10 million in cap space would go a long way toward solving the team’s cap woes this off-season.

Yet, I suspect the Kansas City Chiefs would rather re-sign Bowe. Bowe already fits in the locker room, we know he can be valuable, and he’s a willing blocker. If, say, the Chiefs could get him to accept a $5 million salary reduction it might be worth it because that would be close to the marginal cost of replacing him on the FA market.

Reducing Bowe’s salary to $5 million will still leave him with a $9 million cap number, but replacing him will cost a FA contract plus (at least) $4 million in dead money. You could even add some fictional years onto the end of the contract with inflated numbers to make deal not look so bad for the agent. That move would give Dorsey some extra years to convert salary to bonus and give the team a better 2015 cap number.

Such a move, of course, would come at the cost of pushing dead money in to future cap years.

Perhaps, cutting Avery and Jenkins is part of John Dorsey’s negotiating tactics to make it easier for Bowe’s agent to sell his client on the idea of taking a $5 million haircut this season. Putting pressure on Dwayne Bowe’s camp seems like the most logical conclusion for the purpose behind Tuesday’s cuts.

Bowe will want the traditional cap room move of converting all of his salary into bonus while tacking on extra years. That deal would still give him the same amount of money, but the fact is Bowe isn’t worth $10 million. You need to convince him that he needs to take $5 million less AND spread the salary over fictional future years to get to a good cap position.

Dwayne Bowe would probably still get more than his open market value, which would make him sign the deal if he’s a realist. The Chiefs would get a 2015 salary cap number that reflects Bowe’s real value plus a player VERY motivated to protect his salary next season.

Whatever is going on, I think its pretty clear something is in the works.

Stay tuned.

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