Chiefs part ways with DE Jaye Howard
The Kansas City Chiefs made a surprising roster change Saturday, releasing DE Jaye Howard.
Cap casualties are common within the NFL, and defensive lineman Jaye Howard might be the most recent one. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Kansas City parted ways with Howard on Saturday.
This was a player KC had picked up and developed over the last few seasons. He really started to come into his own as he saw a breakout year in 2015 with 5.5 sacks. Unfortunately for Howard, a hip injury sent him to the IR back in December. Due to depth on the defensive front, Kansas City must have opted to move ahead with the guys they have remaining. Schefter gave his Twitter followers some further insight into why the Chiefs cut Howard:
Chiefs released DE Jaye Howard in part because they owe him $2.5M gtd. They want him to sign with another team to get back some offset money
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 22, 2017
Yup, money. It always comes down to the dollar signs. With the draft coming up next week, teams need to have enough cap space available to sign the incoming class. This offseason was tough in terms of money for the Chiefs. They were limited in cap space, thus making them quiet contributors during free agency.
Teams are built through the draft nonetheless, and Kansas City has done a fine job with that in recent years. There is always the chance the Chiefs are looking to clear space to sign somebody, although I wouldn’t bank on it at this point.
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Howard was a valuable contributor on Kansas City’s defense, but they have enough up front to not miss a beat. Chris Jones had a fabulous rookie season in 2016, and he has an extremely bright future ahead of him. The Chiefs also added former Eagle Bennie Logan a month ago, a stout interior run defender. Add in Allen Bailey and Rakeem Nunez-Roches into the mix, and Kansas City on paper looks to be alright on their defensive line.