The Kansas City Chiefs are expecting veterans Derrick Johnson and Mike DeVito to return to health and provide significant contributions next season after the pair suffered dual Achilles injuries during Week 1 last year.
Part of the reason for the team's expectation is that both have a year remaining on their deals and no ready replacements on the roster. DeVito already restructured his contract; dropping his formerly $5.4 million base salary in 2015 to $2.9 million.
With the team up against the salary cap ceiling - they currently have approximately $2.845 million in space - and requiring somewhere in the vicinity of $5 or $6 million for the incoming 2015 NFL Draft class, could they look to jettison a handful of veterans or restructure a contract or two in order to create some breathing room, as Terez A. Paylor of KansasCity.com posits?
"The Chiefs could create $5.2 million in cap space by releasing Johnson, but Hunt said the club understands what it has in Johnson, who is only 14 tackles short of becoming the team's all-time leader in that category," writes Paylor.
Hunt referred to Johnson as "obviously one of the greatest inside linebackers to every play for the club" and said that there would come a point in time when the Chiefs would address his contract, so it seems unlikely that he's a candidate to be cut.
"The Chiefs could create $3.8 million in cap space by cutting backup quarterback Chase Daniel, who has a $4.8 million cap number this year," Paylor writes. "But Daniel has proven to be reliable No. 2 quarterback in his limited playing time, and if the Chiefs are trying to win this year it would make sense to hold on to him, in case Smith gets hurt."
As has been proven time and again, it pays to have a high-quality back-up at the quarterback position in the NFL, as an injury to the starter can often doom a campaign before it ever really begins.
Daniel, 28, has never thrown more than 25 passes in any of his five NFL seasons, but has shown in limited time with Kansas City and New Orleans that he's capable of getting the job done when pressed into duty.
Paylor also believes the team could potentially restructure the deal for safety Eric Berry, currently battling lymphoma.
It was a significant gesture by the team not to ask the young secondary star to rework his deal last year, but with a looming $8.4 million cap hit for 2015, the time may be right to rework his deal in order to create some much-needed space.
