For anybody that wants to say this is too early and ridiculous to be doing, you're probably right.
It's May. So let's move along.
I've TL;DR'd this OP by putting my broad points in bold.
There are four decent-sized departures I see after this season.
Assuming, at my absolute most optimistic, that the cap stays static for a year, we're going to be inking both DT Chris Jones and QB Pat Mahomes before long, thereby necessitating cap space to be freed up. We can save some major cash by cutting:
1. LT Eric Fisher (assuming the staff remains high on OT Lucas Niang)
2. ILB Anthony Hitchens (maybe LB Willie Gay mans the spot or they draft high)
3. DE Alex Okafor (assuming DE Michael Danna doesn't explode, this will need to be a high pick)
4. OG Laurent Duvarney-Tardif (any number of options here)
We can spin a couple of the above dudes into assets.
Even with these cuts, the Chiefs just aren't going to have cap space, so they're going to need draft assets.
1. They can easily spin Fisher into, I'm thinking, a 2nd and a 4th.
2. Hitchens has no trade value with his contract.
3. Okafor is definitely tradeable, but it would have to be a 2022 conditional pick based on his health. I'm thinking a 4th rounder if he stays healthy and it could drop to a 7th if he doesn't.
4. LDT is not tradeable, as he's not that great and teams know we're cutting him anyway.
Combined with the two projected comp picks, that gives us 10 draft slots for 2021.
1.
2 (Fisher).
2.
3.
4 (Fisher).
4.
4 (Fuller).
5.
5 (Ogbah).
7.
Not that Veach will actually keep that 7th rounder. We all know he's totally trading it this offseason for some bottom-of-the-roster dude who will end up being a starter for us somehow.
Look at all this talent the Chiefs probably let walk in free agency in 2021.
We could very well net 4 2022 compensatory picks.
Here's the most notable impending free agents after this season we're likely to let walk:
RB Damien Williams
FB Anthony Sherman
WR Sammy Watkins
WR Demarcus Robinson
TE Ricky Seals-Jones
C Austin Reiter
DT Mike Pennel
DE Tanoh Kpassgnon
LB Damien Wilson
CB Bashaud Breeland
S Daniel Sorensen
Any of these guys are capable of landing us compensatory picks in 2022, but I put my money on:
Watkins (4th)
Kpassagnon (4th)
Reiter (6th)
Breeland (6th)
Combined with my completely invented Okafor deal above, that has us heading into the 2022 draft with 12 picks.
1.
2.
3.
4 (Okafor?).
4.
4 (Watkins).
4 (Kpassagnon).
5.
6.
6 (Reiter).
6 (Breeland).
7.
Not that Veach will keep any of those 6th or 7th rounders. He's totally going to trade them away for dudes who will somehow start for us someday.
That's 22 picks combined in 2021 and 2022.
Like I said, this is just me scratching up plays in the dirt.
But I don't think this team is in any kind of position to be making aggressive free agency moves over the next couple of years, so they're going to have to make aggressive moves to create cap space.
If one strategy is to capitalize on the draft, we actually have the assets right now to pull that off.
Of course, there's a lot of extension candidates as well to lessen our cap hit.
TE Travis Kelce
OT Mitchell Schwartz
S Tyrann Matthieu
And endless options over the next couple years, but I think there's a hundred ways to keep this roster churning and talented while our cap space crunches under Mahomes and Jones.
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