This Cap Fits Good

May 05, 2008, 9:27:09 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

There’s one facet in the building of an NFL team that sometimes gets forgotten. It’s not because it’s not important, it’s just that understanding the salary cap and all the ramifications and nuances is not something that most people in the media have really ever understood. Since they seldom speak or write about the cap, the fans don’t always have a good grasp of what’s cooking in the books.

That’s especially true right now with the Chiefs. If my e-mail is any indication, a lot of fans are quite concerned that the Chiefs currently have too much money under the cap. Where in years past they were worried about how the team was going to get all their players under the league’s salary limit, now there are fans thinking the Chiefs are becoming spendthrifts and are hoarding cap money.

They point to Jared Allen’s departure as the first indication. They also see that it’s reported around the country that the Chiefs have more salary cap room available right now than any other team in the league.

Let’s start with Allen and his $31 million guaranteed deal with the Vikings. That the Chiefs did not decide to offer the defensive end that much money had nothing to do with the current or future financial state of the team. It had everything to do with Allen’s past: his off-field troubles.

Over the last 12 to 18 months Allen apparently has walked the straight and narrow and changed the way he lives his life. That’s a great first step in re-directing his behavior.

But this calm was preceded by years of problems, going back to his days at Idaho State and maybe even longer than that. There have been plenty of players, heck plenty of Chiefs players, who have howled at the moon over the years. This is not to paint Allen as something that’s never been seen before. But the Chiefs had to weigh many factors in their decision with Allen and his past was a big part of that. His deal with the Vikings is the biggest contract for a defensive player in NFL history. It stretched Minnesota’s finances so tight that majority owner Zygi Wilf had to go back to his partners for a cash call to make it all happen.

If there were currently viable options for an NFL team to recoup money should a player have off-field problems that make him unavailable, the Chiefs might have reacted differently. One of the biggest factors in their approach was protecting the club from future salary cap problems if Allen relapses. Thanks to a court ruling in the Michael Vick-Atlanta Falcons case, NFL teams have little room to recover bonus money if a player is suspended or incarcerated.

The NFL Players Association doesn’t think the owners should get any money back from players who stumble and can’t get on the field. Several years ago, the union lost a battle over bonus money paid to former Chiefs receiver-returner Tamarick Vanover who had been arrested on federal charges involving stolen automobiles and marijuana distribution. Since then, the NFLPA has attacked vigorously in the courts to make sure players, even those that can’t get on the field because they are in jail, get their money.

The Chiefs were not cheap with Allen. They were concerned and conservative. Now, as to whether the Chiefs have more money under the cap right now than any other team in the league, that’s probably a true statement. Allen’s franchise offer of nearly $9 million was part of the Chiefs cap until they traded him. With that off the books, they probably do have a healthy chunk of change remaining under the league’s $116 million cap for this year.

Reasons for that are obvious. The Chiefs are a team with only two highly paid stars: Tony Gonzalez and Larry Johnson. Both signed big money deals within the last 18 months. The roster has gotten younger, as they’ve trimmed many older players who make more money. They don’t have a lot of dead money under their cap, since many of those more veteran players left as free agents. They are rebuilding the roster with youngsters, not free agents, so they didn’t spend a lot of money there.

A lot of that money will soon be spoken for. The Chiefs have two of the first 15 draft choices and Glenn Dorsey and Branden Albert will both sign big contracts. As the season goes on and some of the young veterans on the team show they’ve improved and can produce, the Chiefs will try to sign them before they reach the end of their current contracts.

Don’t worry about the cap and the Chiefs. Going back to when they were banging up against the cap ceiling, the team’s efforts led by executive vice-president Denny Thum have always given the team plenty of options and room to maneuver. The Chiefs have never been in the position the Oakland Raiders found themselves in last week, when they had to release running back Dominic Rhodes or they would have been over the cap.

The Chiefs healthy cap margin has everything to do with setting things up for the future, when these young players become established and they are heading for a second contract.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.