Things are looking good for the Kansas City Chiefs this year in terms of their dead money. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, dead money is essentially the guaranteed salary remaining on the contract of a player who has been released.
As of last February, the Chiefs had the fourth-most dead money for the 2020 NFL season with $8.1 million. Nearly the entirety of that dead money charge was due to the six-year, $78-million-dollar contract that then-Chiefs GM John Dorsey gave to Eric Berry back in 2017.
Berry’s release back in 2019 saved the Chiefs nearly $10 million against the salary cap that year, but they also paid for the release over the past two seasons. They incurred a total of over $15 million in dead money charged against the salary cap from 2019-2020. They would have had to pay that all in 2019, but they spread it out with the June 1 designation. Now, two years removed from his release, the team is finally cleared of any salary cap obligations related to Berry’s contract.
Heading into the 2021 NFL season, the Chiefs are much better off. They have the 13th-lowest in dead money charges, with just under $2.7 million according to OverTheCap. That number can still change as Chiefs GM Brett Veach makes roster decisions to get the team under the salary cap, but right now it’s in a pretty good place. The Chiefs also don’t have to release any players in order to get under a salary cap of $180 million. The salary cap is expected to be higher once the number is finalized, but that’s the NFL’s current floor for 2021.
Only two contracts make up the dead money charges that the team is currently dealing with. The first is the 2020 release of former second-round draft pick Breeland Speaks. Speaks will carry a $629K hit against the salary cap in 2021 and then the team will be clear of any salary cap charges related to the failed draft pick.
The rest of the dead money comes from the 2020 contract restructure of DE Alex Okafor. When his 2021 contract year voided on Feb. 23, it cost the Chiefs $2 million in dead money. They used the cap space freed last year to re-sign WR Marcus Kemp and add C Daniel Kilgore. It also left some money free so the team could add RB Le’Veon Bell in the middle of the season.
Dead money is really the cost of doing business in the NFL, but it’s worth noting that the Chiefs are in a much better place now than they were just a few seasons ago. There are teams spending upwards of $40 million this season on players who aren’t on their roster. Luckily, Kansas City isn’t one of the teams dealing with that anymore. As things currently stand, they also don’t have any dead money on the books for the 2022 NFL season. That could change, but the Chiefs would be wise to keep the dead money low moving forward.
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