Kansas City Chiefs: Money saving ideas

Release Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware

Kareem Hunt is the unquestioned feature back of the Chiefs offense heading into 2018. Hunt led the league in rushing in his rookie season and proved he can handle the full time load. This makes his backups expendable assets.

Spencer Ware is coming off a lost season in which he missed every game after tearing his PCL in pre-season. This injury opened the door for Hunt who took full advantage and unfortunately Wally Pipped him. For those who don’t know, Pipp was the New York Yankee player who was injured and replaced by Lou Gehrig. Gehrig went on to play in 2,129 consecutive games while Pipp became synonymous with players losing their jobs due to injury.

Ware is  a good running back and a capable backup, but he’s currently set to make $1.8 million against the cap this season. The Chiefs could cut him and save $1.5 million towards the cap. I know that is not a big savings and $1.8 million for a backup running back is not a bad contract. But saving money is saving money.

The third string running back Charcandrick West is in the same boat. He’s basically a poor version of Hunt who is set to make $2 million but could be cut and save the Chiefs $1.7 million. Like Ware, West is not an overpaid running back and is a solid backup, but savings is savings.

Cutting these two players would save the Chiefs over $3 million in cap space and could easily be replaced by a rookie. Akeem Hunt could slide into the backup role while the team could find an undrafted player in the draft to fill in the third string role, both at league minimum salaries. A Anthony Sherman has already been resigned and would be listed as the teams fourth string emergency back.