Kansas City Chiefs simply don’t have money to keep Chris Jones

The Kansas City Chiefs can’t afford to keep Chris Jones, it’s just not possible. Going all in on 2019 now leaves the Chiefs holding the bill, with Chris Jones left without a chair.

When playing musical chairs and the music stops, inevitably someone is left without somewhere to sit. After reworking the defense last offseason that included big contracts with Tyran Mathieu and Frank Clark, and a big extension for Tyreek Hill, there simply isn’t the money left for another big deal.

The Lombardi has been raised, the music has stopped, and Chris Jones is left standing without a chair.

At current, the Chiefs stand with roughly $409,495 in cap space. Yes, that’s correct, just under half a million. Moves will certainly be made, Sammy Watkins is likely released and what about Laurent Duvernay-Tardiff?

However, here are a few things to understand when looking at the salaries.

• The Chiefs, currently armed with five draft picks, will need close to $6 million in cap space to sign their draft class. Last year’s 32nd overall selection – N’Keal Harry – alone carried a cap charge during his rookie season $1.836 million. As of current, the Chiefs don’t have the funds to simply sign a draft class.
• Patrick Mahomes will likely have an increased cap number by the time the Chiefs season starts than what it is now. Currently sitting at $5.316 million for the 2020 season, there is a believed consensus the MVP quarterback will receive a new contract. A prorated portion of the signing bonus will be added to that number. What the number is we don’t know, but, for a team that has to rework numbers simply to get under the cap, every dollar counts.
• Every organization desires to go into the season with cap space, generally about $8 million or more. Why? Two reasons. One, when a player like Terrell Suggs becomes available and you want to claim the player, you must have the cap room to put in the claim. Also, players get hurt and end up on injured reserve and players must be signed to replace. Guess what, both the player on IR and the new player must fit under the salary cap as both are still getting paid.
• There are still openings aplenty that need to be addressed. Last year’s veteran minimum for one season was over $800,000. With 27 free agents on the roster, if the Chiefs were to address every hole not used by a draft pick (22 spots), just using last years number, the Chiefs would still need $17.6 million just to fill out their roster.

Let’s do the math then as I’ve laid it out. $5 million + $8 million + 17.6 = $31.6 million just to address the three areas not known as Patrick Mahomes. Next, lets take a look at why the Patrick Mahomes and the contract situation and how and where that will be resolved.