As of next year, there is no cap. Right?

Matt Cassel – I truely believe this guy is going to play well this year. Lock him up.
Brodie Croyle – Gone. See ya. Bu-bye.
Kolby Smith – Needs a solid year because he is expendable. IMO gone.
Mike Cox – We need a fullback on the roster, Mike has looked good filling those shoes.
Mark Bradley – If he stays healthy he will be a stud. New reasonable contract.
Jeff Webb – See Brodie.
Herb Taylor – Keeper, a you guy with upside and provides versatile depth.
Wade Smith – Unless he breaks out he will be bypassed for a younger draft pick.
Tank Tyler – Provides depth if anything, may be a monster this year, maybe not. He stays.
Mike Vrabel – We need to resign Mike, key component to teaching his replacements
Andy Studebaker – If he shows well on SP he will be a keeper.
Derrick Johnson – No brainer, good/bad thing I think he breaks out this year. Cha-Ching!
Zach Thomas – 1 year wonder, here’s to hoping I’m wrong.
Maurice Leggett – Great young talent, need to keep him.
Bernard Pollard – Again no brainer, resonable contract, solid player.
Jarrad Page – He and pollard need to stay together, a dynamic duo for the future.
Connor Barth – I think he has already been passed by Succop (Hope thats right?)

The obvious “great” free agents that were going to come with huge salaries(haynesworth etc), the FA available this offseason werent really all that appealing. We also had to try to get guys for a 2-14 team which is a challenge in itself although it seems like everyone wants to go to Detroit so not sure how much of an argument that is either.

My thinking is a bit different. That list of players you show doesn’t seem all that daunting to me. Also, the uncapped year puts a 30% cap on pay raises, which makes re-signing MOST of those names a pretty simple proposition.

I halfway think that KC mightn’t be spending up to the cap, simply because they don’t feel like they need to add a lot of FAs. Assuming they already have a lot of talent, and the talent takes to the coaching, the age profile of the team makes for a fairly modest salary situation.

My better half – the evil one – has me thinking that there will be at least one or two more fairly significant FA moves. Perhaps more. My evil half thinks they’re not even done crunching the numbers from minicamp. They’re still at the point where the most important thing is to identify the players that are NOT gonna cut it, and cut THEM. And I think that can happen at ANY position, not just the ones with which we fans are currently preoccupied. Right now, they’re runnin’ with the best 85 they could put together, and aren’t sure about a LOT of things.

NT, OLB, OT, C, CB, WR – oh hell, all of ’em have questions that need to be answered.

We are KC. We aren’t NY or a bigger market and the salary cap as jumped increasingly high over the past 3 years. We simply may not have the fan base to support that kind of spending. Maybe a stretch, only Pioli really knows.

no one available worth spending tons o money

We are now finding out that the Chiefs from last season were so undisciplined and poorly coached that they likely lost a lot of games in the second half because their were simply too fat and out of shape; which is a really astonishing thing to find out about a professional sports franchise. Haley’s mini-camp practices were reportedly longer and much more intense than Herm’s training camp practices. I think Pioli/Haley are going to need a season to evaluate the talent they have now with an upgrade of much higher expectations and professionalism and better coaching/teaching.

…with some BIG free agent signing or trading for a cap eating superstar when we may have some on this team already? The truth is we don’t know what to expect from any player on this team. Will Dorsey explode? Who knows. Maybe Tamba will be let off the leash this year. Mark Bradley could put up 1,000 yards and 10 TDs and may never so much as stub his toe for the rest of his Chiefs career. LJ might thrive under this kind of high pressure coaching instead of being rocked to sleep by the last regime. I mean really, what would Peppers have done for last years team? Not enough I can guarantee that. So what would a 4-3 DE, who “wants” to play in a 3-4, do for THIS team? We a a good 1-3 years away from needing that “one guy” to put us over the top and right now I think signing or trading for a big name (or even semi big name) would be just a shot in the dark. Let these guys show us what they got after some conditioning and coaching from this staff first, then wow me with a big move.

Keepers:
Herb Taylor, Maurice Leggett, Bernard Pollard

Losers:
Brodie Croyle, Jeff Webb, Wade Smith, Zach Thomas, Connor Barth, Kolby Smith

Questions:
Matt Cassel, Mike Cox, Mark Bradley, Tank Tylerm Mike Vrabel, Jarred page

Thats how I see it as of today.
BTW Losers does not mean the player is not a talented or successful guy (Zach Thomas) : just that this year is likely their last as a Chief.

We’re saving our money for next off-season when Lebron James becomes a free agent.

-cw