Kansas City Chiefs: Pre-Free Agency 53-man Roster Prediction
By Shade Piper
Free Agent Signings
To clarify, before we get into the signings, predicted market value per Over the Cap was used for these free agent signings in hopes to avoid looking like a complete idiot when these players sign for significantly more or less than their predicted values. Again, these are my personal predicted values for these players.
Marvin Jones Jr, WR
The Chiefs and Jones agree on a two-year $21 million dollar deal that pays him an average of $10.5 million per year and $9.5 million in year one. Jones isn’t the splashiest wide receiver signing that many Chiefs fans are hoping for, but he is a good value and is a tremendous fit for the Chiefs offense.
He is the physical, contested-catch weapon that the Chiefs desperately need opposite of Tyreek Hill. He is also pretty durable and is a touchdown magnet having posted nine touchdowns in three of the last four years. Both of those are things that the Chiefs have been lacking at WR2 in recent years.
Corey Linsley, OC
The Chiefs sign Linsley to a three-year $29.1 million contract that pays an average of $9.7 million per year. Linsley is the best center available and arguably the best overall interior lineman period on the market.
Linsley has been great in Green Bay and has also been a pretty durable veteran. Linsley will be the first step in shoring up the offensive line before the draft. The Chiefs could also structure the deal to a much smaller cap hit in year one than the $9.7 million average. The Chiefs are going to assume that Veach gets the first-year cap hit to around $6 million.
Riley Reiff, LT
Step two in solidifying the offensive line before the draft is signing Reiff to a one-year $9.7 million deal. Reiff didn’t have a market value so I did come up with this number myself. Reiff was released so I can’t see him getting any more than the $11 million he made last year but he is still a solid left tackle (which usually makes more money than a center) so I can’t see him signing for much less than Linsley. That means the Chiefs are going to go with the same AAV as Linsley.
The Chiefs can’t go into the draft with the current offensive line, so signing Reiff as a one-year stop cap for whichever left tackle the Chiefs end up drafting to learn under. He is also (notice a pattern) a very durable vet who may not have the biggest upside but is reliable enough to get KC through next season without having to put all of the load on a rookie.
Deatrich Wise, Jr EDGE
Definitely not a splash signing but the Chiefs grab a rotational EDGE on a one-year $2.5 million to compete with Charlton and (spoiler alert) a drafted rookie at EDGE next season. It would be nice to sign a more productive vet, but shoring up the offensive line is more important at this time. Deatrich Wise should be better than what the Chiefs got out of Tanoh Kpassagnon last season and less of an injury concern than Alex Okafor.
David Njoku, TE
Now, this player isn’t even a free agent currently, so this is a big swing for the fences type of deal. The Browns are plenty deep at tight end and probably aren’t interested in paying Njoku $6 million dollars this year, leading the Chiefs to snag him quickly off the free-agent market on a one year $3 million deal. The Chiefs would like to sign him to a longer-term deal to be the long-term TE2 but Njoku wants to test free agency next season.
These five signings leave the Chiefs with about $5.2 million in cap prior to the draft. The draft class is set to cost around $8.4 million but the Chiefs likely trade up a couple of times and really only the top three picks will cost anything against the top-51.
In reality, the draft class will cost around $4 million in cap space, which wouldn’t leave the Chiefs with much in their emergency fund, but there are other moves that could be done like cutting Damien Williams to get them some more room.