A few weeks ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were trumpeted as having $62.5 million in salary cap space for the 2012 NFL season. And then GM Scott Pioli went on 810 WHB in Kansas City to clarify that it's actually around $37 million once you take into account bonuses and what not from players already on the roster.
From there, the Chiefs signed CB Stanford Routt to the tune of $6+ million in 2012, released Demorrio Williams and saved $1.7 million in cap space and applied the $9.5 million franchise tender to Dwayne Bowe.
After all that, their salary cap space stands at $32.5 million, according to a Sunday report from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
That's good for fifth most space in the league behind the Cincinnati Bengals ($49.9 million), Denver Broncos ($44.7 million), Tampa Bay Buccaneers ($42.7 million) and Jacksonville Jaguars ($40.6 million).
Six teams are over the salary cap limit, with the Arizona Cardinals leading the way at $16.4 million over. The fact that they're in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes, and think they can afford him, should tell you how easy it is to manipulate the cap to say whatever you want it to say.
Even better is that the Oakland Raiders are $7.4 million over the salary cap after already releasing a few players (including both starting cornerbacks). As Gunther once said about the Chiefs releasing players, it sure would be nice to be around and pick a few of these guys up when Oakland releases them.