BakoSaint

This is Saints related though tangential.

It really bugs me how many people act like the NFL salary cap is rocket science and don't take any time to understand it.

In the article below, Adam Schefter says it would be "incredibly challenging, if not impossible" for the Chiefs to clear the $32 million salary cap space to tag Chris Jones this offseason.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...ly-sources-say

Now lets look at Patrick Maholmes contract:

https://overthecap.com/player/patrick-mahomes/5594

Prorated bonus can't be restructured, but in 2024 Maholmes is due $2.5 million base salary, $34.9 million roster bonus, and $0.55 million workout bonus, for a total cap number of about $38 million. All of that except about $1 million base salary can be restructured as a signing bonus. Maholmes contract runs through 2031 so thats 8 years from 2024-2031 that the money would prorate over. So the Chiefs could restructure about $37 million of Maholmes 2024 money to a signing bonus prorated over 8 years from 2024-2031 at $4.625 million a year clearing $37 million - 4.6 million = $32.4 million.

So, a highly paid famous sports writer is saying it would be "incredibly challenging, if not impossible" for the Chiefs to clear $32 million off their salary cap when that is exactly how much they would clear by restructuring the most obvious contract to restructure on their salary cap.

I am not saying the Chiefs should do this, but its just amazing to me that almost nobody understands how this works. I just figured it out from my criticism of Loomis. But whether you agree with Loomis or not, none of this is rocket science. The media is ridiculous for acting like it is.

Personally if I were running the Chiefs I would clear the money, tag Jones, trade him for picks, and draft a receiver with a pick.