Chiefs are talking to Alex Smith's camp about a new deal

After Kansas City Chiefs GM John Dorsey held his press conference at the 2014 NFL Combine, the local media in Indianapolis had a chance to chat with him. A few items of note came out of that chat, including this one:

Dorsey confirms the #Chiefs have reached out to Alex Smith’s representatives. An extension could clear some much-needed cap room.

— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) February 21, 2014

(Terez has more stuff you should read at his Twitter account)

This is notable because it's the Chiefs confirming that they've actually talked to Alex Smith's reps about a new deal. But we knew that was coming. When the owner of the team goes on the radio and talks about wanting the quarterback in town for longer than his current contract, like Clark Hunt did, that quarterback is usually getting a new contract.

The next step in this process is to get some sense of the length of a possible deal and how much money is involved. Because right now the guesses are all over the place, and everyone wants to preserve what little cap space the Chiefs have this offseason.

We've talked about Alex Smith and his contract quite a bit already. The Chiefs are going to extend him, which I don't have a problem with, pending the structure of the contract. What I do want to make sure the Chiefs do is keep Smith's 2014 cap number low because part of the value in trading for him last year was that his current contract was fairly inexpensive. So I don't want them to lose that advantage this season.

Update: A little more...

Had a good chat with Chiefs GM John Dorsey. He's putting every effort into signing Alex Smith longterm. Says talks are ongoing at combine

— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) February 21, 2014