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KC Chiefs: Salary cap crunch could lead to tough decisions this offseason

By John McCarty

DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 17: Martinas Rankin (74) of the Kansas City Chiefs and Stefen Wisniewski (61) of the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to take the field before the first quarter against the Denver Broncos on Thursday, October 17, 2019. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 17: Martinas Rankin (74) of the Kansas City Chiefs and Stefen Wisniewski (61) of the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to take the field before the first quarter against the Denver Broncos on Thursday, October 17, 2019. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /
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Chris Jones (95) (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Chris Jones (95) (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The KC Chiefs may be required to tag and trade Chris Jones in order to add draft assets and avoid spending the big money to address depth.

No one wants Chris Jones to be moved on from. However, eligible for a new contract, the Chiefs opted instead to trade two top 62 draft picks and shell out over $100 million dollars for Frank Clark, and then chose to extend Tyreek Hill.

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Clark will count over $20 million against the cap the next two seasons while Hill sees a nice jump to near $18 million. Big money was also spent on free agent pickup Tyrann Mathieu. As of yet, nothing appears to be happening with the defensive lineman.

Working against an Chris Jones extension is the fact the Chiefs defense has not been good for awhile, while he has been here. Does it make sense to pay a bunch of money to a player to maintain the status quo on a defense that isn’t good enough, especially when the quarterback will getting a new contract soon that will reset the market for money in the league?

Another things working against Jones is simply this; In a passing league in which the team has very little depth at corner (the only corners under contract for next season are Charvarius Ward and Rashad Fenton), can a team really afford paying two defensive lineman close to$100 million dollar deals? Obviously in theory you can, but should you?

My belief is simply that Khalen Saunders was drafted as a player to develop to replace Chris Jones if a deal was unable to get done with Jones. Obviously Hardman was drafted as protection against the now passed concern about Tyreek Hill legal issues, Watkins inability to stay on the field and Demarcus Robinson as a free agent. Saunders is a tackle the organization wanted to develop in case they can’t bring back Chris Jones.

At this point, I firmly believe Jones will be moved this offseason in a trade similar to what happened with Dee Ford last season.

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