How do the Kansas City Chiefs pay for all these high-priced players on the pandemically devastated, salary-covered soil?
It is a question that has been asked a lot lately. Every time it reports that another KC player has handed over a bag of gold doubles, the general public’s head crabs take a little more hair out of his already thin head.
I thought the NFL had a tough salary cap? I thought the Chiefs did not have much money left?
It has always been true that if a team is good enough in financial gymnastics, the salary cap is but a lasting obstacle to jump around. Through contract structures, negotiations, converting the base salary into bounces to support money in future years and canceling years at the end of the deals to spread cap hits, teams can usually find a way to fit their desires under the hard chap. That the salary cap has increased to about $ 10 million a year until this season has also been beneficial – money printing in the future has not hurt with the cap increase (how that will change in future years due to the pandemic remains uncertain).
However, the situation of the Chiefs is different. This is not really a case of the team doing aerobatics to fit the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones and Travis Kelce under the hood.
Nope. It’s the players making it all work.
The group of KC players has taken team-friendly deals that are structured in a way that gives the Chiefs flexibility (throw in some creative-thinking bonus points to the club’s front office).
Neither Jones nor Kelce received signing bonuses, which kept the 2020 Kansas cap figure low.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Network scored Friday Good morning football that the Chiefs were able to extend all three major players, while in 2020 they only added about $ 8 million to the payroll.
The players’ desire to stay together for years and their willingness to leave money on the negotiating table have enabled the Chiefs to get creative with their structures. Take a gander at the figures of KC’s salary caps at Over The Cap, Mahomes, Kelce or Jones are not in the top four earns of the team this year.
Kelce’s deal, done on Thursday, is an example of a player who gives the team flexibility. On its face, the expansion is worth $ 57 million in new money over four years, with $ 28 million in guarantees. The screw is good, especially for a depressed TE brand. With two years left on his previous deal, it keeps Kelce for the next six seasons at KC. Normally with these types of extensions, there is a hefty signing bonus that makes the current salary cap figure significant. Not this time. They paid the star TE the same $ 9.25 million he had already planned for this season. Zero more.
Per Garafolo, the cash flow runs on Kelce’s deal: $ 9.25 million in 2020; $ 13.25 million in 2021; $ 7.5 million in 2022; $ 13.25 million in 2023; $ 15 million in 2024; and in 1725 $ 17.25 million.
Other than a $ 4 million hump next year, the short-term costs are uber-team-friendly. This is basically $ 30 million over the next three years ($ 10 million per, which is where the TE market used to be) and then the team will play it by ear.
