Although Jamaal Charles is viewed as a potential release candidate this offseason, Chiefs general manager John Dorsey offered an — admittedly lukewarm — endorsement of the veteran running back when addressing the media yesterday, according to Terez A. Paylor of the Kansas City Star.
[RELATED: Chiefs Discussing Deals With Eric Berry & Dontari Poe]
“Jamaal Charles is one of the finest running backs that’s ever put on a Kansas City Chiefs uniform,” Dorsey said. “What I admire most about Jamaal Charles is right now, at this present, he is working like the dickens to try and get himself ready for the 2017 season. We’ll see what happens in March and April, but right now, I see Jamaal as a Kansas City Chief.”
Charles, 30, is scheduled to count for nearly $6.2MM on Kansas City’s 2017 salary cap, a figure that includes a $3.75MM base salary, $1MM in per-game roster bonuses, a $2MM reporting bonus, and a $250K workout bonus. None of that money is guaranteed however, so as long as the Chiefs cut Charles before his reporting bonus is due, the club could clear out his entire cap charge.
If Kansas City doesn’t think Charles will be a contributor in 2017, it could certainly use that cap space, as the club is currently projected to possess only ~$3.5MM in financial room, the third-least space in the league. In addition to Charles, backup quarterback Nick Foles and his $10.75MM cap figure could be released in order to create space, but otherwise, the Chiefs may have to rely on restructures to free up wiggle room. Indeed, Dorsey hinted that Kansas City might look to rework contracts later this offseason, likely in March, tweets Paylor.
Charles missed most of last season thanks to knee injuries, and has only played in eight games over the past two seasons combined. The Chiefs do have other options at running back in the forms of Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West, each of whom are signed through the 2018 campaign.
Cut him and see if he’d be willing to sign a cheap one year deal, but if not, then oh well. Too much injury risk there and the lack of cap space really complicates things. That $10 million they’ll get from cutting Foles won’t be enough to sign draft picks and keep at least one of Poe/Berry. I don’t see them keeping both unless they cut another major player. And speaking of lack of cap space, who is KC’s cap tied up with? I’m not that familiar with their roster but off the top of my head but outside of Hali, Maclin, Smith, and Johnson, I really don’t know who else all their money is tied up to.
Justin Houston signed a six year, $101 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs on July 15, 2015. Houston received $32.5 million in full guarantees including a $20.5 million signing bonus, his entire 2015 base salary and $11 million of his 2016 salary…..here is another they are heavily invested in
Yeah taking a deeper look at their salary, the Houston contract is killing them. Hali’s contract isn’t exactly that great either. The Smith contract wouldn’t be that bad if he could actually be a significant passing threat.
Also, Smith’s contract isn’t bad when you consider that Brock Osweiler is making more and accounts for a larger portion of the Texans’ cap.
The 3 biggest cap hits for 2017 is Houston – $22.1 cap hit, and his cap hit was only $13.1M this past year…… Alex Smith cap hit will be $16.9M, which is actually $900,000 less than this past year. Maclin had a $12.4M cap hit, which is exactly the same as this year. Hali’s cap hit doubles in 2017 and it is 100% guaranteed. We are screwed on that
Alex Smith cap hit is $16.9….but his dead cap space is only $7.2M. So we could release him and save over $10M in cap space. As long as we have someone to replace him…. One surprise: Colquitt cap hit is $4.9M in 2017….but his dead cap hit is only $800,000. We need to release him and we could easily find a punter for $1M or less.
10M with pay for Poe and Berry easily. After a player gets a signing bonus it is divided equally into the years of the contract. The team can set up the each years salary to the amount that works. It’s NOT rare for the first years pay amount to be large. The player doesn’t care he just got a “multi-million’ dollar bonus. So the first season both could get paid 2M a piece.. Say Berry had a 5 year contract with 15M dollar bonus.. 2m salary + 3m bonus .. 5M for Berry’s first season,. Then the next four years are a little higher..
In 2018, several contracts end..
Alex Smith is never going to be the reason the Chiefs go to a Super Bowl. He needs to go. Former players have finally commented on how easily it is to bait Smith as well as how he never makes a third read on a play where he’s not adlibbing. They need a QB with peripheral vision. How many open receivers has he not seen this year? I’ve lost count. The 2915 draft class represented well filling in for the injured front 7 this year. Pie doesn’t play hard every down, as in college. He could go secondly. I knew Johnson and Hali were horrible resignings at the time. Too much sentimentalism going on there. If Charles’ knees are cleaned up, he’s better than any RB they have. West and Ware seldom made lemonade out of lemons like Charles still can. They will obviously draft a RB but they need to get better immediately.
Sorry about autocorrect. I meant the 2015 draft class and Dontari Poe, not Pie.
When Charles first came to the Chiefs I thought we’d be good on offense seeing his record but the he tore his ACL and ended up not playing for pretty much the season now I have seen other players tear their ACL (more than one) and within a couple weeks back to playing so I don’t understand what happened. Honestly I feel if he was to be let go it would open a spot for someone who wants to play but that’s my opinion
Mpstinger: What …. maybe you don’t know what your talking about? An ACL (anterior crutiate ligament) about 200,000 cases annually is minimal one season out, if not ruining the athletes entire career. it’s just the joint that’s let’s your knee bend & twist …….
Mpstinger316…. YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! Like Nate said, when uou tear a ACL, you are out 10-12 months on average, and not without a “couple of weeks”. The time it takes to recover from a ACL tear is basically the worst injury a football player can get. Kind of like a pitcher having Tommy John surgery. They are out 12-14 months on average.
WTF.. Adrian Peterson is a freak of nature, he tore his ACL and came back in 6 months. That was considered unheard of.. Doctors are saying a good year is best..
You only have one in each knee, if you tear (more than one) you can’t walk.
Something you should know tough guy, my wife was a cheer instructor. She torn her ACL, the pain was SO intense.. She would rather give birth to four more kids than go through that again. The YEAR rehab is very painful and intense..