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It’s official; the Chiefs are keeping the band together. After months of speculation about his future, Sammy Watkins is staying in Kansas City, according to friend-of-the-site Terez Paylor of Yahoo! Sports.
Paylor broke the news in the early hours of this morning (seriously go to bed, Terez) that Watkins signed a new one-year deal that will pay the receiver $9M million this year, a figure that could increase to $16M after incentives.
The Chiefs have reached an agreement with Sammy Watkins on a new 1-year deal that will pay him a base of $9m for 2020 with an incentive package that can reach $16m, a source tells me.
— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) April 3, 2020
The move creates $5m in cap space for the Chiefs to operate this offseason.
This comes as a bit of a surprise, given how coy Andy Reid was about the subject on Thursday:
“Right now, he’s here,” said Reid. “That’s the positive part. And we sure like Sammy. He’s done a great job for us. As good a player as he is, he’s even a better person. So we’ve really enjoyed him being here. But other than that, I can’t really lead you on either way, because that’s Brett’s area. I’m honestly not dealing with it.”
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Chiefs also reportedly gave Watkins a no-trade clause to stay in Kansas City.
Before the Chiefs restructured Sammy Watkins’ contract and gave him the very rare no-trade clause for this season, KC was down to $171 in cap space - practically enough to buy some Gates Bar-B-Q for Andy Reid.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 3, 2020
With Sammy Watkins and Demarcus Robinson both signing new deals in the last seven days, it is clear that the Chiefs will attempt to “run it back” with the pieces they already have. Given that the offseason is going to be unlike any other we have seen, it should be seen as a sound strategy.
The deal creates around $5M in cap space for Brett Veach to play around with.
Now, eyes will turn to the other big question of the offseason, can the Chiefs tie Chris Jones down to a new deal?