The Kansas City Chiefs traded for guard Ben Grubbs last year and the move was met with a lot of applause from those in Kansas City. Grubbs was a known commodity who was only two years removed from a Pro Bowl nod. The Chiefs offensive line was a major concern entering last season and this move seemed to go a long way to fix it. The Chiefs topped it off by re-working his contract and giving him a four-year, $24 million deal.
And then Grubbs started playing. He was OK, not dominant, before a neck injury ended his season. I'm not sure what we expected but the first year wasn't really what anyone expected. I don't know anything about the injury but obviously neck injuries can be serious, particularly if they end your season early like this one did with Grubbs.
So what's the Chiefs plan with Grubbs? I see a few options.
1. He comes back and starts next year. His cap number is scheduled to be $6.3 million. He's only 31 years old right now. Grubbs would have to beat out Laurent Duveray-Tardif, Jah Reid, Zach Fulton or whoever else the Chiefs line up at guard next season. It's reasonable to think this is a realistic option and it's the best case scenario.
2. He retires due to the neck injury. The Chiefs owe him nothing. Again, I don't know the details here but throwing this out as an option.
3. The Chiefs cut him. Possible? Yeah, I think it's possible but it would be costly. The cap hit would still be over $5 million next season, although they would save about a million off of the original $6.3 million cap number. The Chiefs were dealing with lots of dead money last year but most of that is gone now so there is some wiggle room to take a hit. Since they wouldn't be saving much cap space I would only consider this if they had someone on the roster who is clearly better than him (I'm not sure that they do right now).