Chiefs Potential Trade Scenarios - Salary Cap Edition

Let's take a look at the Chiefs salary cap and how they could potentially create more if needed to make a trade.

As it stands right now, the Chiefs have a little more than $4.15 million in cap space for the rest of the season. They can make a couple of moves with that money, but it isn’t likely to be a move that would move the needle at a position of need, as it would have to be a rookie contract. So how do they create more space, and what could they get there if they wanted to?

Extensions

One of the easiest ways they could create more cap space is to sign a player to an extension. However, they don’t have a lot of great candidates who would help in this regard. The only two active players in that realm are Justin Reid and Joe Thuney. I don’t think that the Chiefs intend to bring back Reid in 2025 due to their recent drafting of Cook, Conner, and now Hicks.

Joe Thuney could make some sense to sign an extension, but it’s a tricky situation. He’s not looked the same the first six games of the season as they’ve gotten used to in previous years. He’s still playing well enough to continue to start and give them the best chance to win, but I wouldn’t say he’s playing at an All-Pro level. Can he get back there by the end of the year? Maybe.

Thuney, however, has the third largest salary on the Chiefs this season at $15.5 million. If they wanted to free up the maximum space they could, they could sign him to an extension and drop his base salary to a league minimum of $1.21 million for the year. If they extended him for another four years, they could free up between $6.22 million and $6.8 million in cap space.

I don’t expect the Chiefs to consider this for multiple reasons, but it could free up significant money.