KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s becoming a tradition in Kansas City. Every March the Chiefs mark the beginning of the new league year by converting Patrick Mahomes roster bonus money into a signing bonus to carve out additional salary cap space.
Tuesday the Chiefs converted $27 million of the $34.9 million roster bonus due to Mahomes this year into a signing bonus, allowing them to create $21.6 million in cap room for the 2024 season. Mahomes will still receive a $7.9 million roster bonus payable on May 5, and his base salary remains $9.85 million. His salary cap hit drops from $58.6 million down to $37 million.
How much cap space does that mean the Chiefs have now? There is not an exact answer to that question at the moment. Spotrac projects the Chiefs at $13,425,604 in available cap room. OverTheCap.com estimates the Chiefs at $15,532,361. The NFLPA database with the precise number is usually not available until a few days after the beginning of the new league year, which this year starts at 3 p.m. central time Wednesday.
The Mahomes conversion also adds $5.4 million to his salary cap hit for the next five seasons through 2028. Due to previous restructures and roster bonus conversions, Mahomes has a dead cap hit of $18.26 million in 2024 and 2025, $11.91 million in 2026 and 2027, and $5.4 million in 2028.
The highest single-season cap hit in his contract is now in 2026 when the then 31-year-old quarterback will count $68.66 million toward the salary cap.
The conversion of the roster bonus into a signing bonus does not involve any negotiation between the club and the quarterback. The player’s contract allows the club to convert the roster bonus for salary cap purposes at their discretion.
The Chiefs can convert as much or as little of the roster bonus as it chooses each season. If the club doesn’t use all the cap space created through the conversion, the team can carry it over to the next season.
While the Chiefs are comfortably under the cap for the dawning of the new league, the salary cap currently only accounts for each team’s largest 51 contracts. Once the season begins, teams must account for all 53 players, a full practice squad and players on injured reserve. The Chiefs usually want to have at least $5 million in cap space when the season begins in September.
There are other contracts that the club can move or adjust to create more cap space. L’Jarius Sneed currently counts $19.802 million toward the cap under the franchise tag, although the Chiefs are expected to either trade the cornerback or work out an extension to lower that number. Several other players have contracts that can be restructured to carve out additional cap space, including guard Joe Thuney, tackle Jawaan Taylor, tight end Travis Kelce and safety Justin Reid to name a few.
