The Kansas City Chiefs are in cap hell. Prior to cutting Maclin, they didn’t even have enough cap space to sign their own draft picks. I see a lot of people lamenting this move and I get it. Maclin was a fan favorite, a hard worker, and one of the best receivers Chiefs have had in years. Bear with me though, I think I can convince you that this was the right call by tackling several of the more common complaints that I see.
Common Complaint #1. Chiefs offense as terrible last year. Cutting Maclin only makes it worse.
What if I told you that Chris Conely had the same number of catches as Maclin, for only six less yards, in seven less targets? Interested? Yes it’s true. What’s more, Conely will play this year for the low low price of $838k, or about $9m less than Chiefs saved by cutting Maclin who had very similar production. At least on paper, replacing Maclin with Conely doesn’t hurt the Chiefs offense at all, it might actually improve it, provided the guy who takes Conely’s spot can produce, and DeMarcus Robinson looks primed to do so. At any rate, the Chiefs were paying way too much for a #3 receiving target. K.C. passed the ball more last year than they have in any year with Reid thus far. With Kareem Hunt bolstering the RB depth, look for them to run the ball a lot more. That means less targets in the passing game. With Hill, Kelce, and Conely, Kansas City will only have so many targets to go around.
Common Complaint #2. This shows the Chiefs have given up on 2017.
Not necessarily. The Chiefs spent a good chunk of money bringing in Bennie Logan for one year. Why would they do that if they plan on sucking for draft position? It doesn’t make any sense.
Common Complaint #3. Maclin takes heat off the other receivers. Their production will dip without him.
There are times when a players ability to command a double team is underrated. In this case, I don’t think it is. By the end of the year, teams were more focused on Kelce and Hill than Maclin. That’s probably one reason he played a bit better late in the year than he did early on. K.C. was missing Maclin for four games. In those games, they faced some pretty good defenses (Panthers, Bucs, Broncos, Falcons), yet, they were able to go 3-1, only losing in a weird game to the Bucs. Their passing game only really suffered against the Panthers, but given a week to adjust to the loss of Maclin, their receiving targets put up good numbers against the Bucs, despite the loss, and played well against a tough Denver secondary. They went on to have a great game against the Falcons with Travis Kelce going for 140 yards on eight catches, Hill getting 53 yards on five catches and Albert Wilson averaging 12 YPC over four catches. In 2015, Maclin opened other receivers up, in 2016, it was, at times, the other way around.
Common Complaint #4. The loss of Jeremy Maclin hurts the locker room.
This is actually the most true concern. The Chiefs don’t have another veteran receiver to mentor the younger guys. Their oldest WRs are Albert Wilson’s age. Perhaps John Dorsey will bring in a veteran wideout, or maybe Reid just trusts his coaches to handle it. In any case, as good as Maclin is in the locker room, he just cost too much for what he brought to the table.
Common Complaint #5. Chiefs could have cut a few less important players to create the cap space they need.
Some fans understand the need for cap space, but believe better options abounded for such cuts. That might be true if the Chiefs were only freeing up space to sign their draft picks, but it’s well known that most teams want at least 10m in cap space going into the season. Last season demonstrated just how important that space is, as they lost both Howard and Bailey. Without cap space, the team wouldn’t have had any decent options to replace them. If the Chiefs needed to get $10M in cap space, their next easiest path to it was to cut Colquitt, Jah Reid, Frank Zombo and Albert Wilson. None of those players are as good as Maclin, but you’d basically be gutting your STs to save your #3 passing target and the Chiefs would still probably be looking to move on from Maclin next year. If Kansas City’s offense continues to struggle, Colquitt may well prove to be more important than Maclin.
It sucks that the Chiefs had to cut Maclin. He was a team player and made a concerted effort to help the other WRs. However, GMs can’t get tied up with emotions. Even though it’s rough to cut a guy who just skipped his honeymoon to attend OTAs (ouch), you have to be willing to do it, if you want to be a winning franchise. Chiefs fans should be thrilled with this year. Their approach this offseason proves that winning is the ultimate goal and the leadership is not afraid to do whatever it takes to get better. It would have been easy for Dorsey and Reid to stick with Smith and Maclin. To go up and get a new QB took some stones. For Reid, it had to be tough to let loose one of the better WRs, and a close friend, but the fact that they still did is a positive sign, for the future of the franchise, and beyond. Fans aren’t satisfied with winning seasons and losing post-seasons. Dorsey and Reid just demonstrated they feel the same way.
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