Report: Chiefs Restructure Kelce's Deal to Clear Cap Space

Kansas City frees up some room to spend after restructuring the deal of its star tight end.

The Kansas City Chiefs have a Week 7 matchup against the San Francisco 49ers approaching this weekend, but the club is hard at work behind the scenes creating a bit of wiggle room in regard to its salary cap situation. Per Field Yates of ESPN, Kansas City has restructured tight end Travis Kelce's contract and cleared $3.455 million of space in the process. 

The Chiefs have restructured the contract of All-Pro TE Travis Kelce, converting base salary into a signing bonus to clear $3.455M in cap space, per source.

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Field Yates (@FieldYates) on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 7:33 a.m. CST

According to Josina Anderson of CBS Sports HQ, this move was made by Kansas City on Saturday and "in part" helped the team make room for a player being elevated from the practice squad. OverTheCap estimates that before Kelce's signing bonus conversion, the team had $211,154 in room above the cap line to work with. This financial move allows for not only a potentially more fluid practice squad process for the rest of the season but also opens the door for the Chiefs and general manager Brett Veach to make a trade if they choose to do so ahead of the league's Nov. 1 trade deadline.

Back in late July, the Chiefs and Kelce came to terms on an adjusted contract that essentially took some money from the back end of his deal and moved it up to the front. This was, in essence, a good-faith gesture by the team to give Kelce an immediate raise. Here's what I wrote about the decision back then: 

By taking money from the back of Kelce's deal and moving it forward to now, the Chiefs are presumably eating up some of their current cap room in exchange for a lower cap hit number from their 32-year-old tight end down the line. Before the adjustment, Kelce's deal was slated to carry hits of $8.86M this year, $14.65M in 2023, $16.4M in 2024 and $18.65M in 2025. The future Hall of Famer is on record admitting that money is "almost secondary" at this stage of his career but for the 2022 campaign, he's at least getting closer to what he'd likely receive on the open market. 

With a bit of money to spend now and needs at offensive tackle and pass-rusher, it's only natural to wonder whether Kansas City has something else up its sleeve. The restructuring of Kelce's contract cleared more than enough room for potential practice squad-related moves (like the one Anderson reported). At that basic level, it accomplishes an under-the-radar feat.

With marquee names such as Carolina Panthers defensive end Brian Burns being brought up as a possible target for contending teams, however, it's worth considering whether the Chiefs are gearing up for something more here. Strictly for the sake of example, Burns's original $4.3M cap hit for 2022 suddenly becomes much more manageable now that teams are well into the season. Could the Chiefs be on the hunt for help via trade as they prepare for a potential playoff run? The next couple of weeks should provide that answer. 

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