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Go over to the KC Star and read through Adam Teicher's report, which includes all of the Chiefs salary cap figures for the upcoming season. We've talked about a few of the big ones but Teicher has everything all lined out, which states that at the moment, pre-Alex Smith trade and pre-franchise tag, the Chiefs have $17-ish million in salary cap space.
The individual contracts listed aren't a surprise as those are basically the same ones we've been dealing with. How those numbers fit into the overall salary cap structure is what the news is here.
Now, here's how I see things shaking out over the next few weeks:
1. Dwayne Bowe will receive the franchise tag before Monday, the deadline to do so. Of course I don't know that he actually will. That's just my prediction. That would deduct roughly $11.4 million off the salary cap space. Branden Albert is a candidate too but as I previously argued Bowe makes more sense at the moment.
2. The Chiefs will likely release Matt Cassel, which would save them $6 million against the cap.
3. The same could go for Tyson Jackson, whose release would save them $15 million against the cap. Jackson could be restructured ... or the Chiefs could just cut him outright. The possibility of him staying -- at a lower number -- seems to be there though. The only thing more frustrating than having to replace BOTH starting defensive ends in one season is ... carrying Tyson at a $17+ million cap number. So we'll see.
4. The Alex Smith trade will become official, which will be a $9.75 million cap number. Unless some crazy shit happens and this doesn't go through. Good thing nothing surprising ever happens in the NFL, right?
What you see here is this: Bowe + Smith = Cassel + Jackson.
To me, that's an easy decision.
If those four moves happen -- big IF right now -- it would still leave the Chiefs with around $17 million in cap. But they'd also have all their other free agents to consider, including Branden Albert, along with any outside free agents and the draft.
That salary cap money goes fast, man. Being $54 million under the cap would be nice.