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According to Pro Football Talk, the Chiefs had $3.1 million in cap space as of March 26. That's a fluid number that's going to rise and fall a number of times between now and the season -- it doesn't include Chad Kilgore's deal, who was just signed by KC on Wednesday -- so take it for what it's worth in March. Surely someone somewhere disputes these numbers, which come from the NFLPA, according to PFT.
Former Chiefs GM Scott Pioli actually left the Chiefs in solid salary cap shape, with very little dead money and few out of whack contracts. The new regime has released players with multi-year deals (Eric Winston, Matt Cassel) and signed others to multi-year deals (Dwayne Bowe, Anthony Fasano and more) so they've certainly put their stamp on the team.
There are two big takeaways for me after seeing the PFT report on cap space.
1. The Chiefs are actually using cap space
Who's in play for the No. 1 pick?
The current list as we know it: Oregon DE/LB Dion Jordan, BYU DE/LB Ziggy Ansah, Texas A&M LT Luke Joeckel, Central Michigan LT Eric Fisher, Florida DT Sharrif Floyd, Georgia LB Jarvis Jones, Oklahoma LT Lane JohnsonThe Chiefs are used to sitting next to the Bengals, Bucs and Jaguars in terms of cap space, usually near the most in the league. Each of those three teams have over $26 million in cap space, among the most in the league. But now the Chiefs are on the opposite side of the league. They're near the Redskins and Cowboys! The Chiefs' $3.1 million in cap space is the sixth-least amount of space in the league. Sixth!
Considering where the Chiefs have been, it's amazing to see such little cap space.
2. Still gotta pay for those rookies.
The Chiefs can and will continue adding players up until the draft, after the draft and even more during training camp. So, yeah, the numbers will change. But I know the Chiefs cap number will be tweaked before the 2013 NFL Draft later in April because they still need to sign their rookies. According to one report, the Chiefs will need a little over $7 million in cap space for their rookies.
They could always do a long-term deal with Branden Albert and lower that nearly $10 million cap number of his in 2013. Just sayin'.