Free agent fits for Chiefs at every position
The Chiefs have a lot of impending free agents and even some of the positions that seem OK need depth. Here are some of the names the Chiefs could be honing in on a week from Monday.
Don’t look now, but the “legal tampering” portion of free agency begins a week from Monday. It feels like the official start of the offseason began this week as rumors swirl at the NFL Combine with all of the GMs and coaches in the same room, but the legal tampering period is when it all comes to fruition. It is a fun way for Chiefs Kingdom to officially turn the page from the beatdown that took place in New Orleans at Super Bowl LIX.
The Chiefs have some work to do before then if they do not want to fall into the same trap they were in last year. If you recall, the Chiefs franchise tagged cornerback L’Jarius Sneed in an attempt to trade him, which wound up not coming to light until March 29th, 2024. This severely hampered the Chiefs' ability to be active in free agency due to the tag taking up so much of the cap.
According to OverTheCap, and after the news of another substantial NFL salary cap raise, the Chiefs are projected to have $7,941,128 in cap space for the 2025 season with 50 players under contract. At this time of the year, only the top 51 salaries are factored into that figure, but this does not include any of the other 40 players they will add between now and training camp at various salaries.
As you can see, you could get some deals done with that amount of space because the Chiefs are notorious for holding small cap numbers in year one of contracts, but it does not leave much room. I am no salary cap expert, but they can unlock a significant amount of cap space by restructuring or extending the likes of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, left guard Joe Thuney and tight end Travis Kelce.
Some others such as right tackle Jawaan Taylor, center Creed Humphrey, defensive end Mike Danna and linebacker Drue Tranquill could factor into that as well, but what that would be doing is essentially making those folks harder to release in future seasons, guaranteeing them to remain in Kansas City for an extra year, which is less than ideal in some of those cases.
I would expect some of these types of movements within the next 10 days or so, nonetheless. That is especially true if they want to prevent guys like right guard Trey Smith, wide receiver Hollywood Brown, defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton, defensive end Charles Omenihu, linebacker Nick Bolton or safety Justin Reid from hitting the open market, where it makes it exponentially more likely their days in Kansas City are numbered. Assuming the Chiefs are interested in making a true attempt at getting Kelce a fourth ring in his probable last season and they make these sequences of moves, let’s dive into who the Chiefs might bring in at each position of the free agent market. Keep in mind some of these guys may not fit certain Andy Reid or Steve Spagnuolo thresholds but are simply good ball players.
