The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead the NFL with approximately $55 million in cap space entering the start of the 2009 league year on March 1st. The Kansas City Chiefs won't be far behind as they're projected to be under the salary cap by approximately $50 million.
Adam Teicher over at the Red Zone breaks down the cap savings yesterday:
- Patrick Surtain's 2009 cap hit was $9.73 million. His release two years early from a 7 year, $52 million contract signed 5 years ago brings his cap hit to $3.55 million. Cap savings: $6.18 million.
- Donnie Edwards' cap number for 2009 was $6.5 million. His released lowered that number to $1.1 million. Cap savings: $5.4 million.
- Damon Huard's contract 3 year, $7.5 million contract signed in 2007 called for a $2.9 million cap hit in 2009. His release reduces that number to $900,000. Cap savings: $2 million.
Yesterday's moves will take approximately $13.5 million off the books for 2009.
Since the Chiefs were already approximately $37 million under the cap, this brings their salary cap space to a shade over $50 million.
There is also a minimum the Chiefs MUST spend to comply with the salary cap rules. The minimum is 86.% of the salary cap according to Ask The Commish. That means the Chiefs must spend approximately $106 million on the players.
This means that the Chiefs are looking at spending at least $33 million of cap space in 2009. Some of that will come free agents and some of that will go to players currently on the team.