Must be the Money

This week, the Chiefs enacted a clause in the newly agreed Collective Bargaining Agreement which allows a team to sort of roll-over money they had left under the cap. Here's the actual clause:

“(v) Carrying Over Room. A Club may “carry over” Room from one League Year to the following League Year by submitting notice in writing signed by the owner to the NFL no later than fourteen (14) days prior to the start of the new League Year indicating the maximum amount of Room that the Club wishes to carry over. The NFL shall promptly provide a copy of any such notice to the NFLPA. The amount of Room carried over will be adjusted downward based on the final Room available after the year-end reconciliation.”

The Chiefs have done so, and will carry over $20 million they had left under the cap. 

“We ended last year about 20 million dollars under the salary cap which was a little bit less than has been reported,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt recently told Steven St. John of Sports Radio 810 WHB. “We chose to carry that salary cap space over, which is something that you can do in the new CBA, you can carry it over.

“The reason that we chose to carry it over is we anticipate needing it in 2012 and 2013, both to continue signing our free agents as well as being able to go out and sign some free agents from outside.”

This $20 million will be an added bonus toward the 2012 cap number, which has yet to be set. In 2011, however, the cap was set at $120.375 million for the league. The number offered by Hunt is a little off from the number that ESPN had for the Chiefs, which was $24.104 million. That amount, rolled over to the 2012 league year, gives the Chiefs $62.995 million in cap, the most of any team in the NFL. 

That number, however, could change. Any player signed by the Chiefs before the start of free agency will eat into that surplus. That means, if the Chiefs resign both CB Brandon Carr and WR Dwayne Bowe, the team will certainly have less money to roll over (which wouldn't be a bad thing if that means these players return). 

I know Chiefs fans don't hold their breath when it comes to the organization spending money in free agency, but it seems Hunt might be serious about dishing out some cash this offseason. 

“We are going to utilize that cap space and thank goodness we’ve been able to carry over the space that we had into 2011, 2012 and 2013 because it’s really going to help us, it’s going to give us an advantage against other teams that will have to let guys go.”

Of course, after next season, the CBA requires teams to spend at least 90% of the cap, which would be well over $100 million if the cap stays similar to the number it was set at in 2011. Maybe that's what Hunt was referring to?

Or maybe it's time to get crazy.