NFLPA says Chiefs spent second-most against NFL salary cap in 2018-19

In a tweet on Thursday, the NFL Players Association released figures on how much salary cap space each NFL team will carry over to 2019, as allowed under the current collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA.

As you can see, the Kansas City Chiefs are carrying just $715,000 in salary cap space into the 2019 salary cap — second-least in the league behind the Los Angeles Rams.

According to Spotrac — whose numbers are based on reported contract information, instead of the actual numbers to which the NFLPA has access — the Chiefs currently have just under $3 million of salary cap space left from the 2018 season. But Spotrac doesn’t have full details on the exact structure of incentive-based compensation and other factors that affect the actual space each team has available against the salary cap.

That means that Spotrac’s numbers — while they are useful in giving us a general picture of the cap situation for each team — aren’t the final word. Furthermore, any error can cut both ways. For example, Spotrac says the Cleveland Browns currently have just over $54 million available under the cap, but the NFLPA says that the Browns will carry $56.5 million into 2019.

Here’s the key takeaway from this information: only the Rams spent more of their effective salary cap in 2018 than the Chiefs did.

With key players like Tyreek Hill, Chris Jones and Dee Ford reportedly up for contract negotiations in this offseason — and the possibility of a huge contract being negotiated for Patrick Mahomes after the 2019 season — it would be nice to see the Chiefs carrying some unused cap space into next season. But clearly, that isn’t the case.