The Kansas City Chiefs have been the gold standard in the NFL for the past couple of seasons, but now we are seeing the downside of that come home to roost.
When you are as good as the Chiefs have been for so long, that means you have star players everywhere. The problem is that in this salary cap era, you can't pay them all.
That is where the Chiefs are right now.
With roster needs, coupled with stars who need new deals and the threat of losing key starters to free agency, general manager Brett Veach will have to do a lot of wheeling and dealing this offseason.
And USA Today has laid out exactly what kind of trouble the Chiefs are in.
"Offloading Thuney, 32, cleared $16 million in cap room even if he didn't fetch nearly the return (a fourth-rounder next year) that Hill did in 2022," USA Today writes. "Thuney's departure goes a long way toward paying for the $23.4 million franchise tag recently applied to RG Trey Smith.
"However, the AFC champs are still $3 million overspent, don't have a reliable left tackle, will likely lose LB Nick Bolton and S Justin Reid, among several others, to the open market and only have six draft picks – most coming at the end of each round – to partially reload the roster. They'd also like to lay the groundwork to extend defensive stalwarts George Karlaftis and Trent McDuffie with both a year away from what will be cap-stretching fifth-year rookie options."
So we have the cap constraints this season, with the urgent need to fix Patrick Mahomes' protection, plus the looming departures of Bolton and Reid, who were both good players for Steven Spagnuolo's defense.
All of that while already saying goodbye to Joe Thuney.
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But then next season, the impending deals for Karlaftis and McDuffie, both of whom will be on their fifth-year option is on the horizon as USA Today mentions.
So, the Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs will have to perform a lot of salary cap gymnastics, not only this offseason but also next.
We often say that eventually, you have to pay the salary cap piper, and right now, the Chiefs, who have been the standard for winning in the NFL, appear to be next in line.
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This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 7:33 PM.