KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs enter the 2022 offseason with an estimated $14.5 million in salary-cap space, per Over the Cap.
The Chiefs ended the 2021 season with around $1.3 million in cap space, which can be carried over to next season.
This year, Kansas City probably needs to add several impact free agents, so the team can begin to routinely build through the draft in 2023 and beyond and keep salary costs at a manageable level.
That also would allow the Chiefs to invest evenly in cost-effective draft picks with four controllable seasons.
Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach will have a balancing act for both this season and long-term. The Chiefs have 39 players under contract with 28 players whose contracts expire when the new league year begins.
RELATED | Nick Jacobs: Assessing Chiefs’ biggest team needs for 2022
RELATED | Expect Chiefs to be more active in free agency in 2022
The Chiefs have 17 players under contract for the 2023 season with 10 contracts on the books for 2024.
Kansas City will likely have create cap room if they want to make significant improvements to the roster through free agency, which also will add multiple contracts to balance their committed numbers in the next three seasons.
Here are the decisions ahead for the Chiefs in the effort to create additional space against the 2022 salary cap, which is projected to be $208.2 million:
1. Convert Mahomes' roster bonus
The Chiefs have roster bonuses, which can be manipulated and turned into signing bonuses that are spread over the next 5 years of the contract, built into each season of Patrick Mahomes' 10-year contract extension.
This season his roster bonus is slated to be $27.4 million with 10 years remaining on extended contract.
Converting that into a signing bonus spreads it equally in $5.78 million cap hits for each of the next five seasons, while giving the Chiefs up to $21.62 million in salary cap relief this season if needed.
That move alone could potentially give up the team up to $37 million in cap space.
2. Extend Hill's contract
Entering the final year of his contract, wide receiver Tyreek Hill carries a $20.7 million cap hit in 2022.
If the Chiefs team need additional relief and want to prevent Hill from hitting free agency, they could offer him an extension at market value to reduce his 2022 cap number.
Hill will turn 28 this season and probably will keep an eye on what Green Bay star Davante Adams gets, if he hits the open market. The expected average annual value range is likely $22 to $25 million.
The current wide receiver market tops out with Arizona's DeAndre Hopkins making $27.3 million per year.
Kansas City also could explore trading Hill, but that would mean moving on from arguably half of its biggest threats on offense.
3. Extend Jones' contract
Defensive tackle Chris Jones enters the third year of a four-year extension. He converted $20 million of his roster bonus last year to give the team $13.3 million in cap space.
That increased his cap numbers for 2022 and 2023 by $6.66 million per season — giving him a current projected cap number of $29.4 million, which accounts for 14% of the cap.
Again, the Chiefs could explore a trade here as well, but Jones is the only premium pass rusher on the roster.
4. Release Clark
Defensive end Frank Clark is set to have a $26.3-million cap hit in 2022.
The team can outright release him and get $12.7 million in immediate cap relief or release him with a post-June 1 designation and get $19.5 million back by spreading the dead money over the next two years.
Unfortunately, Clark, who signed a five-year deal with $104 million in 2019 after arriving via trade from Seattle, hasn’t given the Chiefs the return on investment they likely envisioned after their Super Bowl run.
5. Release Hitchens
Linebacker Anthony Hitchens carries a $12.7-million cap hit into next season.
If Kansas City were to release him, it would get more than $8.4 million back against.
The Chiefs made Nick Bolton a second-round pick last spring and his performance probably will push Hitchens out of the starting middle linebacker job.
In other words, Hitchens has likely played his last down in Kansas City.
Veach and the Chiefs have significant opportunities to create the necessary cap room this off-season to add impact players to their roster. It is just a matter of how much they want to push into the 2023 and 2024 payroll. These are biggest moves available for the Chiefs to create cap relief.
