The Kansas City Chiefs needed to make some moves to be in compliance with the regular season cap space. To do so, they had to restructure the contract of guard Trey Smith, who is in the middle of a four-year, $94 million deal.
Jason OTC of OverTheCap, explained that the “The Chiefs restructured the contract of G Trey Smith to gain $12.5M in cap room. This makes the Chiefs in compliance with the cap for the regular season.”
The Kansas City Chiefs needed about $17.6M in cap space to reach regular-season compliance before clearing $12.5M by restructuring right guard Trey Smith’s contract. This leaves the team fully compliant with roughly $13.8 million in working room.
How do the Chiefs erased the salary cap deficit?
They had a small offseason buffer (around $4 million), but once regular season rules kicked in, they were facing a deficit. By converting Smith’s base salary into a signing bonus, they cleared $12.5 million in instant cap space.
Combining their existing baseline and roster cuts, the restructure completely erased the deficit and left them with $13.8 million in total active cap space, which is a highly-strategic number.
The $13.8M is not much, but enough to make Chiefs stronger
Teams need roughly $3M to $5M just to get through a season to cover standard practice squad movements, injury replacements, and game-day elevations. Hence, there is money to spare in that regard.
Because player contracts are prorated weekly, $13.8 million in October or November goes a long way. If a high-profile wide receiver to help Patrick Mahomes or defensive depth piece becomes available at the trade deadline, the Chiefs have enough room to absorb a major remaining salary without needing to force another emergency contract restructure.
