Kansas City Chiefs: Pros and cons of cutting Jeremy Maclin

PRO: MONEY TALKS

Arguably the biggest reason why the Kansas City Chiefs had to let Maclin go was because of their salary cap issues. Maclin signed a five-year deal worth $55 million before the 2015 season and was set to make $10 million heading into this season.

Simply put – Maclin didn’t live up to the hype of that contract, even in just two seasons. He was being paid to be a number one receiver, but was overshadowed by both Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce last season. While there were obviously other options to release, financially Maclin made sense to be the one to get the axe.

Per Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap (linked above),

"This will save the cap starved Chiefs immensely, increasing their cap space from a minuscule $2.1 million to around $11.5 million."

The Chiefs may have needed the money to sign their draft picks or just didn’t feel that Maclin was worth shelling out $10 million to. Either way, money makes the world go round and Maclin wasn’t performing to the level of which he was getting paid.