Kansas City Chiefs: Five players to cut in 2020 offseason

CAMERON ERVING

Cameron Erving was brought in during the 2018 season and appeared to be a solid swing option along the offensive line. There was hope  for him in 2019 to serve as the swing option again, but when he was tasked with filling in for Eric Fisher this season, he was not good.

Erving has a club option for the 2020 season that must be exercised by March 18th and not exercising that option seems like a pretty easy decision. Patrick Mahomes was under pressure frequently while Erving was at left tackle and with the Chiefs having a relatively easy out, not picking up the option is the best way to go here.

The Chiefs tried to jumpstart Erving’s career, which had fallen flat during his time with the Browns, but it didn’t work. Now to cut bait and move on.

LAURENT DUVERNAY-TARDIF

I’ll preface this one by saying this: I’m only truly on board with cutting Laurent Duvernay-Tardif if the Kansas City Chiefs plan to go with an interior lineman early in the draft or have some other type of plan to fill the position. Otherwise, they should hold onto LDT despite his not-so-great contract.

While saving money is good, having a good offensive line to protect Mahomes is better. Duvernay-Tardif hasn’t been top notch, but cutting him to save money and not have any type of insurance policy at right guard wouldn’t be the brightest of moves.

Cutting LDT would result in  $4 million of dead cap, but down the line would open things up for if the Chiefs wanted to keep both Mahomes and Jones for 2020 and beyond. LDT was also banged up quite a bit in 2019 and has struggled with staying healthy throughout his career.

Parting ways with Laurent Duvernay-Tardif makes sense, but only if the Chiefs then put right guard as a top priority this offseason.