FLEXIBILITY: Why the Chiefs Can SURPRISE Fans With Major Free Agency Signings After Salary Updates

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What do the chiefs still do in free agency

and what have they already done in a salary cap update today on Lockdown Chiefs?

From the land of the free and the home of the chiefs,

this is the Lockdown Chiefs Podcast.

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Go check out the mock draft if you haven't already.

That was actually posted yesterday.

That is going to be something that I had a lot of fun doing.

But here we're going to talk about what had the Chiefs done in free agency?

What could they be doing going forward?

And kind of where do they sit where it comes to the salary cap?

So that's where we're going to take a look at at this point.

And right now as it sits,

we still do not have the information on several of the contracts.

Yeah, we have the basic information on Gilman and Travis Kelsey.

We don't know what cater co-hosts are in for.

We kind of have basic information on Taekwondo as well.

But we don't actually have the numbers.

And one of the things that that was really interesting is when the numbers

actually came out on Kenneth Walker,

you know, it is basically a deal where they're looking at this

from the perspective of, okay,

we'll see what we get in year one.

He's guaranteed money in year two.

But he has nothing left in year three.

And technically speaking,

you could save $14.5 million almost

in 2028 by making this a two year deal with Kenneth Walker.

Not saying they're going to do that,

but that's part of what is possible.

And so right now in 2026,

Kenneth Walker's cap number is almost $5.7 million.

For a guy that signed a deal that is basically three years,

$43 million, his cap number in 2026 is only 5.7.

So that kind of tells you how this is going to work out.

He got a $13 million signing bonus.

That spreads out over the next three years,

since he signed to a three year deal.

He's got a base salary of 1.215 million in 2026

and a workout bonus of 135,000,

puts him right at about 1.35 million

in a guaranteed salary.

And on top of the roster bonus of $13 million gets him paid $14.5

for the season.

So he does get a pretty decent paycheck in 2026.

And then you're sitting here looking at the next couple of years.

In 2027 and 2028, he's got salaries of 14.1 and 14.1

and workout bonuses of 250.

So quite literally,

he got a contract that is basically giving him the same amount

of money every single year.

There is no roster bonus on this contract.

So that's not something that they're going to be looking at

with the three year deal that doesn't surprise me.

But he's basically going to be getting 14.35 million

from the chiefs every single year he is here.

That is what is scheduled on his contract for 26, 27 and 28.

His cap number will jump to almost 19 million,

sorry, 18.7 million in 27 and 28.

So that's kind of how that's going to work out.

I'm going to be curious to see what the chiefs do with their other deals.

What they've done with Travis Kelsey is a one year deal for 12 million.

If that's true, then obviously they'll take up a bunch of their cap space.

But we don't have those real numbers yet that hasn't been released yet.

So that's interesting to me as well that we're waiting on all this information

that I would have expected already been out there since free agency basically

started over a week ago at this point.

So right now as it sits,

the chiefs look to have close to 19.6 in cap space.

But again, that doesn't include Travis Kelsey, which would be 12.

So they'll take them down to seven.

If it's really a one year, $12 million deal doesn't include a Louis Gilman

that doesn't include Catercohu, Taikwan Thorden.

They did sign my Caliando over the weekends.

But that's going to be a really cheap one year deal for probably just over a million

dollars would be my guess.

So he may just place the guys at the bottom,

but it's not really going to affect the seller cap too much.

He's also resigned Cole Cresciensen as well to a $1.215 million deal

with a little bit of a signing bonus.

Sorry, no, not a signing most.

He's got a little bit of a guaranteed salary I apologize.

So if they cut him this year, he would get about $250,000 guaranteed.

So something to watch there.

But they did make a couple of moves.

As I said, the roster currently sits at about 61 players.

62 if you can't Caliando.

So they still have some work to be done.

You have nine draft picks.

So you still need to add 20 or 30 players, but there's going to be a lot of UDFA

that come over the next couple of weeks as well.

Well, and after the draft more specifically.

So that'll be something to watch.

When we get back, what can they still do?

What could they possibly continue to do?

What could they be looking at doing?

That's coming up next.

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So what can, what can the chief still do?

At this point, I do think that any big free agent deal is going to require some moves for the chiefs.

There are a couple of moves that we've talked about a little bit.

In the biggest one, Chris Jones got a bonus last week.

So I don't really think obviously nothing's going to be happening with him.

He's not going to be going anywhere.

They just paid him $16 million that was due.

Well, they may not have paid him, but he had a $16 million bonus due on the 13th.

So that is guaranteed at this point.

So now he's still got a $19 million salary in 2026.

That can be adjusted to open up some salary cap space.

Trace Smith has almost a $20 million salary in 2026.

That could also free up some salary cap space.

In Crete Humphrey has another has $14.2 million, $25 million on a salary in 2026.

And Georgia offices is 10.9.

So they definitely have some contracts that they could play with.

They could definitely make some moves there.

They could easily free up $20, $30 million just by restructuring some of those

and spreading out the cap hits over the next couple of years with the salaries.

Definitely something they still have the ability to do and the option to do.

Don't know that they will do that.

But if they are looking at doing a larger deal, that's something that they're going to have to do.

Is they're going to have to restructure some money.

One of the other things that we found out over the weekend was that

Trangle did a restructure on his contract, which we thought that he could potentially be a guy

that would be a cut candidate.

He's obviously not going to be cut.

He's going to be playing for Kansas in 2026.

But he reduced his cap number in 2026 by almost $2.5 million, which is significant

because he basically made it so the chief could sign Tonga almost by himself.

Tonga's complete cap number in 2026 is $3.2 million.

Trangle freed up to 1.5 million.

So not quite the full way there, but most of the way there on that contract.

So he basically made Tonga, signing Tonga almost mean nothing when it comes to the salary cap for the chief.

So something to watch there.

If we get more information on, you know, did they make any other moves to do some restructures.

You know, something to watch.

I'm going to be curious.

There's been a lot of talk, a lot of smoke.

And not from people that I would really think would have the inside track on Kansas City that the chiefs are interested in the tackle market.

You know, is Trent Williams going to stay in San Francisco?

I've heard rumors that, you know, they're trying to reduce something there.

And maybe he's going to move on and the chiefs would be interested.

I would kind of be shocked in that regard.

Is it possible that they would do something like that?

Yeah, it's possible.

If they still feel like Trent Williams can be a top left tackle in the NFL and he's willing to play for less than market value.

It's possible, but he's not going to get market value in Kansas City.

And you would have to redo move.

You would have to redo the roster a little bit to be able to bring in a guy like Trent Williams.

So that's where those some of those moves come in where I'm talking about.

They could do this.

They could do that to free up some of the money that would be available.

But Trent Williams doesn't have any guaranteed money for the San Francisco 49ers in 2026.

So it would be something that's it's possible that he would be, you know, moved on from at this point and wouldn't have anything.

So I can't see him coming here to play on a cheap contract because he has nothing that he's going to be getting paid from the 49ers.

So don't see that happening.

Lots of different things that the chiefs could be looking at.

They've already signed two running backs in free agency.

They've added a.

They've added tack one Thornton to come back.

They, you know, they brought one of their linebackers back.

They brought one of their guards back.

You know, this team is kind of filling out the back into the roster and beach is doing what he does most years trying to make it to where you don't have a huge hole that you absolutely have to address with one of your picks in the draft.

Not saying that they can't get better at some positions.

They absolutely can.

But you don't want to have to be forced into taking a specific position because that's a, that's the point where you get into a situation where you feel like you have to take a.

F.A.

F.A.

You.

Because you desperately need a defensive end.

So while I do think the defensive end is still a need.

I wouldn't call it a desperate need as some people will.

I do think Kansas City addresses it.

But it's not something where they have to overdraft trying to fill out that specific need at this point.

I do think that it's also possible that they will be looking at a guy that's sitting out there in Cameron Jordan is Jordan willing to play on a lesser deal.

He only made, I think, six or seven million dollars in 2025.

So it's not like he'd be getting paid a lot less.

Is he willing to take something like that in Kansas City on a one year prove it deal or something with maybe a void year.

It's where you're giving him, you know, six, seven, eight million dollars, but it's spread over two years.

I mean, I don't love doing void years, but those are the types of contracts that be okay with doing it.

It doesn't, you know, eat into your cap horribly the next year.

But I don't know if the Kansas is going to be looking at that direction.

It's just there's been a lot of people talking about that they could add an edge that way, and that's possible.

Not a ton of things out there on the edge market after when you start looking at the rest of the guys.

So I do think that when you're looking at what Kansas City can do the rest of the free agency, it's going to be very limited.

Unless they start making some moves, unless we start hearing about some of the restructures of some of these other contracts.

I do think that they're probably pretty close to done or at least not really going to be taking big swings in the free agent market.

When we get back tomorrow, we're going to be eating into more of what this team has done in free agency looking more at the NFL draft.

And Matt will be back to join Ryan on Wednesday.

Let us know what you think in the comments, and thank you all for listening today, and we will talk to you tomorrow.