Many of us have almost assumed in recent weeks that free agent to be Jaye Howard would be leaving the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency. After all, good defensive linemen like Howard are hard to find and other teams will pay plenty of money to those players. The Chiefs already have plenty of free agency questions with the likes of Eric Berry, Derrick Johnson, Sean Smith and others so I figured that Howard played too well last season for the Chiefs to keep him.
Maybe not. Maybe the Chiefs can keep Howard. ESPN's Adam Schefter told the Chiefs' BJ Kissel that he thinks the Chiefs can get something done with Howard.
"I think they find a way to get that done & keep him."
— BJ Kissel (@ChiefsReporter) February 25, 2016
~ @AdamSchefter on #Chiefs DL Jaye Howard. pic.twitter.com/WdMYZ2bGVS
VERY interesting. This would be terrific news for the Chiefs because without Howard they have a gaping hole along the defensive line. Mike DeVito is a free agent and not an every down player anyway while reserve linemen Nick Williams and Rakeem Nunez-Roches are more unknowns than anything at this point. Keeping Howard would be HUGE for the Chiefs because it would help alleviate what would be the Chiefs No. 1 or No. 2 need heading into free agency.
Of course we have to see the money involved here. Howard does have some risk associated with him because 2015 was really the first year he played regular snaps the entire season. He's a big reason the Chiefs run defense improved but you're still working with a fairly limited sample size.
I'm absolutely down to bring him back if the money is right. How much? Allen Bailey makes over $6 million per year. The Broncos paid Derek Wolfe $9 million per year over four years. The sweet spot may be somewhere around there. I really don't have a good sense of how much so good luck to John Dorsey negotiating this.