KC Chiefs: Salary cap crunch could lead to tough decisions this offseason
By John McCarty
Free agents galore combined with a potential salary cap crunch could limit the KC Chiefs’ options at trade deadline and dictate moves this offseason.
As the season ticks on forward on 2019, fans are looking toward perhaps the Kansas City Chiefs making moves at the deadline to improve the team in their dimming hopes that their beloved team is able to make a run at the Lamar Hunt trophy.
Regardless of what the Chiefs do in the coming weeks, they could be telling to what the organization has coming this offseason. Tough choices and decisions await as the franchise’s insistence of being aggressive and constantly charging forward is coming home to roost.
What am I talking about? Lets take a look.
*All salary numbers provided by overthecap.com*
The Chiefs’ cap situation, while not dire, is not overly good after this season. Tough choices and popular players are likely to be let go.
While the Chiefs currently sit tenth in the National Football League in cap room, their position flips within the league at the conclusion of this campaign. At current, the Chiefs, for the 2020 season, sit at 25th in the league in salary cap room.
And while the Chiefs are certain to create cap room with the release of veterans and the rollover of cap space, Kansas City likely will be in a tough position financially.
The most obvious opportunity to create cap space is the oft injured receiver Sammy Watkins. His contract calls for him to have a $21 million cap number with $7 million guaranteed, so a release will generate for the Chiefs $14 million in cap space.
Considering the number of games Watkins has missed since he arrived in Kansas City for the 2018 season, it’s hard to imagine, under any circumstance him returning after the 2019 season concludes.
Another popular name that could be moved is the pictured Dustin Colquitt. Everyone loves the punter and Colquitt has been the man for many years here in Kansas City. However, paying a punter $2.650 million with money for playmakers is a difficult proposition, especially when moving on from the veteran clears a clean $2 million.
In the past years draft, the 49ers used the 110th overall selection on Mitch Wishnewsky, a punter out of Utah. Over the course of his four-year contract, he will receive, in total, $3.284 million, with a cap number never exceeding a million.
What are other names that could free up some money?