The Kansas City Chiefs will carry over the majority of their remaining 2021 salary cap into the 2022 NFL season.
The Chiefs have $1,322,092 in salary cap space remaining for the 2021 NFL season, and according to ESPN’s Field Yates, they’ve declared the unused cap space for rollover into the 2022 NFL season. This likely won’t be the final number for Kansas City, though. The NFL will do an audit of all incentives, bonuses, and triggers to calculate the final figure that the team will carry over into the 2022 NFL season.
This carryover puts the Chiefs’ salary-cap projections for the upcoming offseason up over the $30 million mark. That’s before the team rids themselves of any bloated contracts (Anthony Hitchens and Frank Clark) and restructures contracts (Patrick Mahomes). The NFL’s salary cap for the 2022 NFL season is set at $208.2 million and when it’s all said and done with, Brett Veach could have upwards of $60 million in cap space to use in free agency.
NFL teams recently declared unused 2021 cap space rollover amounts (below).
After the playoffs, the NFL will audit incentives, bonuses, etc by team. That figure will be added/subtracted to the number below.
The sum + the 2022 Salary Cap = each team's 2022 adjusted cap number. pic.twitter.com/BMThnJyLpa
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 17, 2022
This salary-cap carryover is important because the Chiefs have a number of players that they’ll want to re-sign or extend this offseason and every little bit is going to help. Orlando Brown Jr., Tyrann Mathieu, Melvin Ingram and Byron Pringle are among the two dozen players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. Looking ahead, a Tyreek Hill contract extension could also be forthcoming as well.
Whatever the case, it’ll be a busy offseason for the front office as they try to retain their own talent, while supplementing the team with some fresh faces.
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