After a stunning loss in Super Bowl 55, the Kansas City Chiefs entered the offseason with the goal of improving their roster through free agency and the draft in a bid to reclaim the title.
And helping them do that are some of the team’s key players, who are restructuring their contracts to try to free up more cap space that can be used in signing new players.
After quarterback Patrick Mahomes agreed to a contract restructure last week, tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones are the latest to do the same to give the Chiefs more salary-cap flexibility, according to Bleacher Report’s Tyler Conway.
While the terms of the deals have not yet clear, the most likely way for Kelce and Jones to restructure their current deals would be to convert their base salaries into signing bonuses. This would allow the Chiefs to spread it out over the course of their deals. According to SportRac, the new deals would give Kansas City around $38 million in cap space heading into free agency and the draft.
Based on reports coming out of KC, it appears simple (expected) restructures to Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, & Chris Jones’ contracts have freed up over $38M of cap space leading up to the offseason. The #Chiefs have some wiggle room.https://t.co/lSUFgEJ1Xu
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 15, 2021
After their offensive line struggled to protect Mahomes in Super Bowl 55 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Chiefs will likely use that cap space to sign or draft offensive linemen that can prevent defenders from getting to the 2018 NFL MVP.
The Chiefs earlier cut starting offensive tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz, who both missed Super Bowl 55. As a result, Mahomes spent most of the night running or scrambling to extend plays.
With that loss in mind, it is clear that the Chiefs plan to address this need through the draft and free agency, and their players in Mahomes, Kelce, and Jones helped gave them the salary-cap flexibility to do it.
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