How long will Dwayne Bowe be a Kansas City Chief?

Adam Teicher has a nice piece over at ESPN looking at some of the Kansas City Chiefs contract commitments for the 2015 season and comes to the conclusion that the Chiefs are likely to be tight up against the salary cap against next year. You should read his post here. It's tough to project the cap a year out even if GM John Dorsey is paid handsomely to do so.

The most interesting part of Teicher's piece (for me) came when he notes Dwayne Bowe's contract suggests he's likely to be a Chief in 2014 and 2015.

For some reason I thought Bowe's contract gave the Chiefs a decision to make before the 2015 season but looking at the Over The Cap numbers on his deal, the money and cap hits strongly suggest he'll be a Chief in 2015.

Bowe's 2014 salary is guaranteed but that doesn't really matter. He's not going anywhere this year anyway. He received a $15 million bonus on his five-year contract, which is prorated so every year of his contract includes that $3 million on the cap. That $3 million per year counts against the cap whether Bowe is on the team or not.

Cutting Bowe next season would only save the Chiefs $3.5 million on the cap while giving them over $10 million in dead money if he were cut. That's a very high number and a strong indicator that Bowe's probably going to be in Kansas City for the 2015 season.

Update: Maybe not....

FYI, according to @corryjoel if the #Chiefs cut Dwayne Bowe after June 1 next year they can save $9.5 million on the 2015 cap

— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) March 28, 2014

The Chiefs could always restructure Bowe's deal at some point to create more cap space. Let's say they take his $10.75 million base salary in 2015, turn $9 million of that into a bonus and leave the $1.75 million as the base salary. That brings his $14 million cap number down to $8 million.  Saving money, right? The problem is that you then just doubled the bonus money in future years, which means that's $6 million you saved will now just be paid out in 2016 and 2017, whether Bowe is on the team or not. (Also why it's tough to restructure Brandon Flowers or Tamba Hali -- no guarantee they're on the team next season.)

The 2016 offseason is the one to remember for Bowe. He'll be 31 years old at that point. Playing three years of a five-year deal is pretty common for NFL contracts (baseball players laugh at these non-guaranteed contracts).

The comments section below is where you complain about Bowe's contract. And then someone reminds you the Chiefs had no choice but to re-sign Bowe last year. And around and around we go...