Kansas City Chiefs: The true cost of Sammy Watkins’ contract
By John McCarty
The Sammy Watkins contract made headlines last offseason. The true cost for the Kansas City Chiefs has yet to truly be felt, but soon will be.
(Photo courtesy of Over the Cap)
Much has been made about the deal the Kansas City Chiefs made with Sammy Watkins both when it was agreed to and ever since then. A three-year contract called for a total payout of $48 million with $21 in guarantees.
A signing bonus of $21 million combined with the $16 million average salary leaves the Chiefs with a cap number in 2019 at $19.2 million and in 2020 that number climbs to $21 million. Expensive to be sure, but where will it really cost the Chiefs?
Salary Cap
After the 2019 season, the Chiefs will be stuck in a difficult place financially if they don’t plan ahead this offseason. Kendall Fuller, Chris Jones and Tyreek Hill are the headliners of the Chiefs free agent class. NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes also becomes eligible for a contract extension after the 2019 season.
Currently, Over the Cap projects the Chiefs, as of right now, to have posses $49.137 million in cap space, 24th in the NFL. For comparison, there are nine teams currently with cap space at or above $100 million, tops belonging to Buffalo with $126.877 million.
Contact totals for Jones and Hill along with Patrick Mahomes could reach $400 million for the three players. Joel Corry of cbssports.com predicts Hill receives more than Odell Beckham and Chris Jones will receive more than Fletcher Cox.
As the graph above shows, the Chiefs, should they release after the 2019 season, instead of paying Watkins $21 million, would save $14 million against the salary cap, taking on $7 million in dead money.
For a team that is obviously behind the eight ball financially for the next couple years, that $14 million would be nice to have to help keep young, cornerstone pieces such as Chris Jones and Tyreek Hill. However, the Chiefs will continue their tradition of holding on dead cap money.
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Did you know Jeremy Maclin spent as much time on the cap as dead money as he did as an active player? Maclin technically comes off the Chiefs payroll this year after spending the past two years as dead cap.
The Chiefs will need all the money they can get and sure feels as if the Chiefs had structured the contract to move on from Watkins after the 2019 season. Big money and big financial commitment for a player with injury history, so let’s hope 2019 season is a good one.
Tyreek Hill
The biggest cost to the Chiefs with Sammy Watkins may not even be the contract itself, but what it does for the contract talks with Tyreek Hill. Yes, the Odell Beckham contract will impact Hill negotiations, but the Watkins contract will have implications on the Hill discussions.
When the Chiefs signed the Watkins deal, they established the floor, the baseline of what the Hill contract could be. If the Chiefs are willing to sign Sammy Watkins, with spotty production and an extensive injury history, to a contract paying $16 million per year, what would they need to pay Hill, who has thus far produced more on the field and been able to stay on the field more consistently through the first three years of his career. Will the Chiefs need to pay $18 million a season? Is it $20 million?
When the Chiefs signed Sammy Watkins, they established a price line for Tyreek Hill when that time came. The question could easily be, do they want to pay Hill that much. That’s a different discussion for a different day.
First Round Draft Options for 2019 NFL Draft. dark. Next
The Chiefs will move on from Sammy Watkins after the 2019 season and likely will do so quickly. Do they have the player to replace the production he has provided?
Can someone like Demarcus Robinson (who is approaching the point of a new contract himself) or Gehrig Dieter help replace Watkins, or will it be shared between receivers and perhaps a combination of receiver, tight end and running back production? They likely will do so cheaper than $21 million.