State of the Franchise - Kansas City Chiefs - Show me the Money Edition

With the Chiefs season going as well as it has to this point I want to throw out what my biggest concern is for the team at this point.  It’s not Matt Cassel, it’s not Mike Vrabel, it’s not Dwayne Bowe, it’s not Charlie Weiss.  No, my biggest concern has to do with Scot Pioli and EVERYONE on this team.  The question that plagues me at this point is this:  are the Chiefs going to be able and willing to pay all of their young players?

Let’s think about this for a second.  Everyone is excited this year because of the promise our young players have showed.  Some of them were drafted this year and are stepping up (Eric Berry, Dexter McCluster, Tony Moeaki) and some were drafted in the last year or two and are finally showing why they were drafted where they were (Branden Albert, Brandon Flowers, Glenn Dorsey, Tyson Jackson, Brandon Carr, Jamaal Charles).  This is very encouraging and there is nothing more exciting than having a team take that big step into being legit with a bevy of young talent.  The only people in which you would think aren’t going to start for this team in 3 years would be Mike Vrabel, Brian Waters, and Casey Weiggman, the rest could start for this team in 3 years and beyond.  That’s where the issue lies. 

The most prominent players on the current Chiefs roster are: Branden Albert, Brandon Flowers, Tamba Hali, Glenn Dorsey, Tyson Jackson, Brandon Carr, Eric Berry, Kendrick Lewis, Tony Moeaki, Jamaal Charles, Dexter McCluster, Dustin Colquitt, and Ryan Succop.  These are the players that come to mind when looking towards the bright future the Chiefs have.  When were all these players drafted?  Of the previously mentioned players here is the amount drafted from which year; 2008-5, 2010-4, 2009-2, 2006-1, 2005-1.  That is 13 players right now that will have their contract come up within the next 3-5 years. 

This is a huge issue.  Of those players, let take a look at the players that could be at “elite” NFL status when their contracts come up: Tamba Hali, Brandon Flowers, Glenn Dorsey, Jamaal Charles and the rest could be pro-bowl level talent when their contracts come up.  Glenn Dorsey would be the easiest to sign, someone at his position with his limited stats doesn’t have much leverage to get much more than what he got as a rookie contract.  Brandon Flowers could be the hardest to sign.  Namdi Asomguah (sp?) signed a ridiculous contract about a year ago and Darelle Revis signed a contract recently that netted them both $16M/yr and $12M/yr, respectively.  This means that, as well as Flowers has been playing, he could ask for at least $10M and would be completely reasonable.  With the contracts signed by D’Marcus Ware and Chris Johnson, Tamba Hali and Jamaal Charles could find a way to ask for plenty of money if their season continues the way it has gone.

The rest of the players mentioned would find it easy to ask for lots of money too, especially somebody like Brandon Carr who has severely outplayed his 5^th round contract.  So how is this a problem?  Well, there are a couple of reason why this might be an issue.

The first thing that comes to mind is the salary cap.  We are currently under no salary cap in the NFL but that will last as long as Lindsay Lohan’s singing career.  The cap will be back and once it is back, the Chiefs will have to play by the rules just like every other team.  As of now, the Chiefs payroll is roughly about $85M, according to estimates the salary cap (if the NFL had one) would have been about $130M this year.  This leaves about $45 of “cap room” which will only grow in the next year or two.  However, keep in mind that that cap space fills up extremely quickly.  Especially when you are gonna have to dole out big time contracts with more and more money being required to be guaranteed.

After the salary cap, you have to look at Pioli’s past.  Pioli doesn’t have a history of making his players happy and signing them to big time contracts.  The golden boy Tom Brady himself barely has made $10M/yr from the contract Pioli got him to sign.  He cut ties with Deion Branch, he got rid of Asante Samuel and Randall Gay who were all young, talented players.  This is what worries me the most.  Brandon Flowers is going to be able to ask for a heap of money, and the question is will Pioli fork it over?  For him or any other players?  


I for one am extremely worried about this.  The idea of investing a lot of time (and Money) into some of these players just to have Pioli let them go because he doesn't want to pay is something that is not appealing to me.  I don't want to see players who could be some of the best in our history go out the door just because Pioli has such a big ego he thinks he can find somebody to replace them.  If we are "New England West" then that is what we can expect, and I don't want to see that happen to some of these potentially great players.