Chiefs: The Franchise Tag, Trading Players and Cap Implications

Chiefs: The Franchise Tag, Trading

Players and Cap Implications

by Paul Pulley | March 7, 2019

Playing Tag with Dee Ford

Now that the Chiefs have placed the Franchise Tag on Dee Ford, with the 2019 linebacker tag number being $15,443,000, this puts the Chiefs salary cap in a precarious position and limits what the team might be willing to do in free agency, unless some moves are made to free up cap space.

A rumor surfaced at almost the same time that the announcement of Ford’s tagging was made, that stated the Chiefs were open to trading Ford. Just a few minutes ago (late morning Wednesday), a rumor surfaced that the Chiefs would dump Ford for a 2nd round pick. Interesting. I would prefer a first, but realistically, I would definitely trade Ford for a 2nd and a 4th. Any team that was able to acquire Ford in a trade would be able to work out a longer term deal with Ford and his agent to lower the 2019 cap hit from the franchise tag number.

There are several teams that could use pass rush help. First and foremost, the team with far and away the worst pass rush in the league last year, is the Oakland Raiders. Now, if Oakland wanted to divvy up two first round picks and a third rounder, I would make the trade, otherwise Gruden could just kiss my grits.

Teams that might make sense for a trade, teams that could use pass rush help are the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts or the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta currently doesn’t have much cap space to work with, but the other three are in good shape. The Colts and Bills currently have the 1st and 3rd most cap space, respectively, of all the teams. I was actually looking at all of this before the news came out about the Chiefs maybe settling for a 2nd round pick, because all four of the teams I just mentioned have two 4th round draft picks this year. The Colts actually have two 2nd rounders also, which coupled with having the most cap space, put them at the top of my list for a trade partner, asking for a 2nd and a 4th.

Can Trades Be Made

The best chance of getting a player traded is undoubtedly Dee Ford. Even though Ford had the franchise tag placed on him, and he will soon be 28 years old, any team acquiring Ford in a trade would have until July 15th to structure a long term deal.

Justin Houston is a different story. Houston just turned 30 years old, and while still a very productive, all around outside linebacker, he has base salaries the next two years of $15.25M and $17M. That’s a lot to absorb for a player that will most likely be released and hit the free agent market in about eight more days (it’s still Wednesday). The obvious scenario would be for other teams to let Houston become a free agent and then attempt to sign him to a less financially cumbersome contract.

Eric Berry, it would be fantastic if the Chiefs could find a trade partner for Berry, but with his unwillingness to play and his uninspired play when on the field, combined with his extensive injury history and his outrageously massive contract, I don’t think even Dan Snyder would touch this one. If the Chiefs feel that Berry can produce in 2019 after spending a lengthy amount of time doing nothing to fix his heel problems, then I guess we’ll see. If not, I am expecting a post June 1 release, if a replacement can be acquired in free agency.

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