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The salary cap has always been an extremely confusing part of covering the NFL. Reports would surface about the KC Chiefs salary cap space, so we'd write about it. Then the NFL or the Chiefs would dispute the numbers because the numbers came from the NFLPA. The NFL wouldn't release any numbers to compare it to. You didn't know who was right and who was wrong. And then to add in the whole idea of actually understanding the mathematics behind the cap ... it was a real pain in the you know what talking about the salary cap.
But get this: the NFLPA has actually released a PUBLIC salary cap report for every NFL team. And get this again: it's updated four times a day! Check it out at this link. For clarity, these are the NFLPA's numbers, not the NFL. But this is, from what I can recall, the first time either the NFL or NFLPA has actually made a salary cap report public.
The Chiefs have $4,153,573.00 in salary cap space right now, according to the report. The cap number for 2013 is $123 million but the Chiefs are carrying over $14,079,650.00 from last year. Right now they have $132,842,454.00 against the cap, which leaves them with just over $4 million in space.
A few things:
1. The Chiefs will need money to sign their rookies. According to this cap report, they will need over $7 million in cap space to do that, which tells you more moves could be coming before the draft. Then again, those players signed will be replacing a player who is currently counting against the cap so it's not as much as you'd think.
2. Branden Albert has signed his franchise tender so his $9.8 million is counting against the cap. That number is real -- both in cash and cap terms (which I have to clarify since so many NFL contracts are not real) so trading him would eliminate $9.8 million from the books.
3. I don't know what the NFLPA releasing this report means -- if anything -- but this is noteworthy as well:
The NFLPA sent an inquiry to all player agents today asking they report any suspicion of collusion between teams during free agency.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 3, 2013
DeMaurice Smith letter to agents: "we have heard reports of a concern that teams are working in concert ..."
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 3, 2013
(De to agents cont): " to "peg", "rig" or "set" market prices on player contracts."
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 3, 2013
4. The teams with the most cap space are (almost) exactly who you think they are: Jaguars, Browns, Bucs and Bengals. Remember when the Chiefs were always included in that group?
5. All I want is an intelligent discussion about the salary cap. I hope having this information available helps facilitate that.
More reading:
Chiefs sign Frank Zombo, former Packer
Chiefs sign Tommie Draheim, former Packer