Chiefs Wage Cap: Jawaan Taylor’s deal re-done to suit DeAndre Hopkins

On Thursday, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs introduced their commerce for Tennesse Titans’ vast receiver DeAndre Hopkins was official. By then, NFL Community’s Tom Pelissero had reported the ultimate phrases Chiefs and Titans spent Tuesday night time negotiating.

DeAndre Hopkins’ 2024 cap hit

As beforehand reported, the Titans will get a fifth-round choose from the Chiefs, which might change into a fourth-round choose if sure circumstances are met.

To make the deal manageable for Kansas Metropolis, the Titans agreed to pay $2.5 million of Hopkins’ remaining 2024 base wage, leaving a bit below $2.6 million of his base pay for Kansas Metropolis to hold in opposition to this season’s wage cap. The Chiefs additionally needed to tackle Hopkins’ present $60,000 per-game roster bonus, including one other $660,000 to his 2024 hit. In whole, he counts $3.2 million in opposition to Kansas Metropolis’s cap.

The Jawaan Taylor restructure

Since we had been calculating that Kansas Metropolis had solely $3.1 million in cap house earlier than the commerce, the deal would have put the Chiefs about $100,000 over the wage cap. (After vast receiver Skyy Moore was positioned on the Reserve/Injured record on Thursday, his $1.3 million wage continued to depend in opposition to the cap).

However on Friday morning, ESPN’s Subject Yates reported that Kansas Metropolis had additionally restructured proper sort out Jawaan Taylor’s contract, creating $5.3 million in cap house.

Taylor was nonetheless owed $12.6 million of his $19.5 million base wage for 2024. The Chiefs paid Taylor a signing bonus a bit of over half of that quantity — $6.6 million — so they might unfold it over 5 years — the final three seasons of Taylor’s contract, plus two void years. That reduces Taylor’s 2024 cap hit by $5.3 million, whereas rising it by $1.3 million in each 2025 and 2026 and including $1.3 million in lifeless cash to each 2027 and 2028.

Whereas this transfer makes transferring on from Taylor after 2025 a bit tougher — it provides nearly $4 million to the lifeless cash Kansas Metropolis must carry — it could nonetheless be doable.

The Chiefs’ present cap house

To place it merely, Kansas Metropolis was over a barrel. The staff now has 9 gamers on their Reserve/Injured and Reserve/PUP lists. Whereas they can not play, they nonetheless account for nearly $24 million in cap house. The staff desperately wanted a large receiver — and getting one with Hopkins’ potential for a cap hit of $3.2 million was a cut price. Sadly, the Chiefs didn’t have fairly that a lot house.

However now, they’ve $5.2 million in cap house. Would possibly this imply one other transfer is on the horizon? It would. However the Chiefs may additionally wish to cling on to that cap house for emergencies. As we have now seen this season, these can crop up.