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On Tuesday, the Kansas City Chiefs signed defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth to a one-year contract. On Friday, Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson reported the details of that contract for the former Indianapolis Colts player — and it’s another good deal for Kansas City.
Taylor Stallworth (Chiefs) one year, $1.187M, $300K gtd, salary $1.035M ($300K fully guaranteed for skill, injury, salary cap), plus $152,500 active-inactive any one game roster bonus
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) April 8, 2022
Just as we expected, this is another standard veteran salary benefit (VSB) contract. Under the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, these contracts allow a team to sign a player with at least four accrued seasons (the number Stallworth accumulated with the Colts) to a one-year deal at their NFL minimum base salary (in 2022, that’s always at least $1.035 million) and pay them up to $152,500 in other compensation (such as a signing or roster bonus).
But in a VSB contract, the cap hit for the player’s base salary is the same as a player with just two accrued seasons — which in 2022 is only $895,000. So assuming that Stallworth is active for at least one game in 2022, he’ll be paid $1.188 million — but it will count just $1.048 million ($895,000 plus $152,500) against the cap.
Stallworth is the 11th Kansas City player to be signed to a VSB contract this season. (The others are tight end Blake Bell, fullback Michael Burton, safety Deon Bush, linebacker Shalique Calhoun, tackle Geron Christian, wide receiver Josh Gordon, linebacker Elijah Lee center Austin Reiter, wide receiver Justin Watson and offensive lineman Andrew Wylie). So far, these contracts have saved the Chiefs $2.9 million in salary-cap room — and it’s likely that as the offseason progresses, Kansas City general manager Brett Veach will sign more veteran players to these kinds of deals.
Since this is exactly the contract we expected for Stallworth, our estimate of the team’s probable cap space remains unchanged: $14.5 million.
Please note: an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated both the total number and cap impact of Kansas City’s VSB contracts. We apologize for the error.
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