Currently we have Barry Richardson starting at Right Tackle, in a perfect world we would be saying good-bye to Jon Tait and his 13 years of service. Potentially clearing a spot for him in our ring of honor. That didn't happen, Tait finished his career in Chicago and retired a few years ago due to ankle problems. Similarly we should be saying good bye or cheering Slyvester Morris, William Bartee, Greg Wesley, Ryan Sims, Larry Johnson, Greg Wesley, Scott Fujita and the list goes on. Where the Chiefs are didn't happen in the last 3 years, it has happened well over the last decade. The decade prior to the 2008 draft the Chiefs drafted 66 players, and 62 are no longer with the team or even in the league. That number can't be dismissed when talking about the Chiefs cap.
You don't get to 30 million under the cap overnight, and for Pioli you don't get there in 3 years. That 30 million dollars is an organizational failure. It basically means you have the meat of your roster still playing on their rookie deals. That doesn't fall on one GM, one coach, that falls on a decade of poor management. In the last 3 years under Pioli, he has done little to get us out of the hole. 2009 actually was more of the same and has dug a hole a little deeper.
Fans are beating the spending drum. Even if we gave every player on the roster 2 million dollars each we will still be under the salary floor, and far from sniffing the cap. Even if we signed every free agent that comes our way that will still place us under the cap. 5 players worth 30 million dollars (above Steve Breaston) would still put us under the floor. There is no spending your way out of 10 decades of bad personnel decisions. There is only a few ways, but Pioli may have backed himself in a corner.
Last year Derrick Johnson signed a deal. What wasn't mentioned was that Pioli signed DJ to a 19 million dollar base salary for the 2010 season. Pioli absorbed that number in the 2010 cap and DJ pocketed the prorated portion as a signing bonus. If you look at DJ's contract he has nothing but base salary left. That doesn't show up on the cap in 2011 and in the future. More than half of DJ's total contract is pocketed and off the books.
Similarly Pioli worked out deals with Matt Cassel and Jamaal Charles that have no future ramifications. Pioli used roster bonuses in order to pay them instead of the typical signing bonuses that most of the NFL uses. For all intents and purposes Jamaal Charles is paid for, he has base salary over the next 4 years around a 11 million dollars. The guaranteed portion was a roster bonus of 8 million that is on the cap this year, but is in Charles' pocket and off our books in the future. Cassel only has base remaining as well, similar to Charles Pioli front loaded his base and paid him in roster bonuses over the first 3 years of his contract.
These contracts were done prior to the current NFL CBA. The new CBA is no longer about the cap but cash spending. Starting in 2013 the Chiefs will have to spend 89% of the cap in cash. With Charles, Cassel, and Derrick Johnson for all intents and purposes "paid for", the Chiefs will have to find a way to get to that 89%. Penalties for not doing so are fines, forfeiture of draft picks, and payment to all players on the roster for the difference. In 2014 the NFL gets a 1 billion dollar windfall from ESPN, that will add approximately 10 million more dollars in cap space the Chiefs will have to deal with.
Currently we have Bowe and Carr up for a new deal. The question isn't if the Chiefs pay them, rather how the Chiefs pay them. Do we franchise the most expensive one and the following year give him a huge bonus? Does Pioli get each a 5 year deal with a 20 million dollar roster bonus to eat space? Carr and Bowe will be Chiefs, the issue isn't affording them, because they can't afford for cap purposes to let them go.
It's going to be an interesting next couple of years. The NFL will force the Chiefs to spend so I expect them to approach free agency aggressively. If they don't they will end up running the risk of facing penalties by the NFL. I never viewed this team as cheap. In the same breath I never viewed them as aggressive. The problems the Chiefs currently have are problems from over a decade ago. But now they have less than 2 years to fix them, and the clock is ticking.
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