The Kansas City Chiefs had very little salary cap space entering Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season.
We expected that the team might make a cost-cutting move by the way of an extension or a contract restructure. They went the route of making a deal with a player currently on the roster.
As first reported by ESPN’s Field Yates, the Chiefs have restructured Harrison Butker’s contract. They converted approximately $2.2 million of his salary into a signing bonus, which creates nearly $1.5 million in cap space for the team in 2022. This should allow them to make the recent 53-man roster and practice squad signings without risking going over the salary cap.
While Chiefs K Harrison Butker (ankle) is uncertain to play Thursday night, he’s giving the team an assist this week as the Chiefs restructured his contract by converting $2,186,389 of his salary into a bonus, creating $1,457,593 in 2022 cap space.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 14, 2022
This is really only a quick fix for Kansas City. Despite creating nearly $1.5 million in salary cap space, they likely still have less than $1 million in space. That’s from sending Trent McDuffie to injured reserve, signing Elijah Lee and Jack Cochrane to the 53-man roster and signing Corey Coleman, Dicaprio Bootle and Matt Ammendola to the practice squad. They’re all contributing factors to the team’s salary cap total.
As for Butker, he remains under contract through the 2024 NFL season. His cap hit will be slightly bigger in each of the next two seasons.