The Chiefs have restructured the contract of guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, per Terez A. Paylor of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). There are not yet any details on the restructure, but it will create some much-needed cap room for cap-strapped KC.
LDT was scheduled to count for nearly $9MM against the Chiefs’ cap in 2020, $6.45MM of which was comprised of base salary. It’s possible that Kansas City converted some of that money into a signing bonus in order to spread out the hit over the remaining three years of Duvernay-Tardif’s deal.
The Quebec native was selected by Kansas City in the sixth round of the 2014 draft. By 2015, he had become the team’s full-time starter at right guard, and he inked a five-year, $42.36MM extension after the 2016 season. Though he missed a significant chunk of the 2018 campaign due to injury, he started all 14 regular season contests in which he appeared in 2019, and he also enjoyed perfect attendance in the team’s postseason run through Super Bowl LIV.
Though Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics didn’t love his 2019 performance, ranking him as just the 47th-best guard out of 81 qualified players, LDT is a key component of the Chiefs’ high-octane offense.
Chiefs must continue to churn roster so it has young guys to play special teams. They cannot fall into the rut that Hank Stram did, keeping the old guys around and let the franchise rot. Still need to take care of the MVP as well.
Good news is this deal will not create dead money, unless they cut LDT later.