A few interesting reports are coming out on the Kansas City Chiefs and their plan with their 2015 free agents. Earlier it was about Mike DeVito's future in Kansas City. Now there is a report from CBS Sports Jason La Canfora which has a few things of note about center and free agent-to-be Rodney Hudson...
Chiefs center Rodney Hudson will outpace some projections. He came this close to signing a four-year extension during the season that would have been worth $6M a season -- very good money. I bet he ends up with at least $7M a year in free agency, however, and I continue to hear the Raiders are looking hard at him.
If that's the case, it looks like the Chiefs think Hudson's market is around $6 million per year. Unless anything has changed since then. Without seeing the proposed in-season deal, it's impossible to evaluate if that was the right move for the Chiefs or for Hudson. But if he can get even more than that on the free agent market in a few weeks, it doesn't look like such a bad decision. Hudson bet on himself and appears to have potentially set himself up for an even better deal.
Meanwhile, La Canfora mentioned Oakland, who has a boatload of salary cap space. Their center last season, Stefan Wisniewski, is currently the No. 2 free agent center behind Hudson, according to Pro Football Focus. Their grades give Hudson a much higher score last season than Wisniewski. ESPN's John Clayton also connected Hudson and the Raiders.
I wrote earlier that I'm starting to accept that Hudson may be too pricey for the Chiefs. With the Chiefs needing to accommodate cap space for players like Justin Houston, it's a tough decision. What really puts the Chiefs in a bind is that they don't have an obvious replacement for Hudson (Kush? Free agent? Draft?).