Tamba Hali's contract Voided

[Chiefs4life24]

When outside linebacker Tamba Hali took a $3 million pay cut to remain with the Chiefs last season, the team did it by adding four voidable years to the contract to spread out his $5 million signing bonus to future salary cap years.

Reworking the final year of Hali’s contract freed up $7 million in salary cap room for the cash-strapped Chiefs in 2015, and Hali was guaranteed to remain with the team another year before becoming a free agent. But the deal also had a flip side; the team would be charged $4 million against the 2016 salary cap if it didn’t reach a contract extension with Hali by March 4.

March 4 passed Friday without an extension, which means the remaining four years on Hali’s contract have automatically voided, resulting in the $4 million salary cap charge, The Star has learned.

That means the Chiefs, who also have safety Eric Berry’s $10.8 million franchise tender tying up cap room, should have approximately $18.75 million to work with when free agency starts Wednesday.

Hali, 32, finished with 48 tackles this year and 6 1/2 sacks, earning his sixth Pro Bowl berth, but he’s played through knee issues the last two seasons. He sat out practice most of last year in an effort to keep him fresh for Sundays.


He indicated a desire to return to the Chiefs for an 11th season in 2016, but made it clear that if he did, he wanted to make sure he could play better. Hali also indicated after the season that his knee would require surgery.

If Hali does not return — it would have behooved the Chiefs to sign him to an extension before Friday’s deadline, if he would be back — it opens the door for 2014 first-round pick Dee Ford to get more playing time. Ford had 23 tackles and four sacks in 14 games last season, including five starts. Ford played a career-high 565 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

The Chiefs have a number of other key players set to hit free agency Wednesday, including another team icon in inside linebacker Derrick Johnson, and three underrated starters in cornerback Sean Smith, defensive tackle Jaye Howard and offensive guard Jeff Allen.

Howard, 27, and Smith, 28, particularly appear to benefit by testing the open market. Both are productive starters in their primes and the NFL salary cap went up $13 million for each team this offseason.


The Chiefs have a handful of other free agents they might like to retain, including quarterback Chase Daniel, safety Tyvon Branch, defensive end Mike DeVito, safety Husain Abdullah, receiver Jason Avant, tackle Donald Stephenson, outside linebacker Frank Zombo, cornerback Jamell Fleming and outside linebacker Dezman Moses.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl...#storylink=cpy

[jason1981]

This sounds like it was a stupid deal. Why would they set themselves up to lose 4 mil? This just doesn't make sense. So all the talk hali took a discount to help the team was just a lie and all it did was cost the chiefs.

[Chiefs4life24]

So instead of having 30 some million we only have 18.75 million to resign Berry, Allen, Smith , Howard, DJ, Tamba and all those guys, were gotta be prepared were gonna lose some good players. What a stupid deal by the Chiefs if this was true we would've been better off letting Tamba go last year and it wouldn't have cost us 4 million

[Eydugstr]

Somebody must've really dropped the ball not meeting that March 4th deadline.

[jason1981]

I wouldn't be surprised that hali refused to restucure his deal to get free 4 mil and also get a new contract on top of that. Im willing to bet the chiefw tried to redo his contract by march 4th but hali held all the power. Which is stupid. If hali is serious about wanting to be a chief he will include thst 4 mil as part of thi yers salary of he does resign with us.

[kcvet]

in the mean time the Faiders are looking him over

[Chiefs4life24]

Paylor reports the Chiefs can bring Tamba back but they will owe him whatever they pay him plus the $4 million that hit the cap Friday. Plus other teams can pursue monday

[jap1]

The $4 mil is not money that Hali is suddenly going to get paid. What they did was spread his signing bonus (that he ALREADY received in full) out over the next couple of years. Signing bonuses effect the salary cap over the entire length of a contract.

Hali didn't screw us to make an extra $4 mil. He took a paycut last year and we re wrote the contract to give us an extra $4 mil. We ended up having $2.5 mil left over at the end of the season, that rolls into this year, mostly thanks to Tamba. So realistically the contract voiding only cost us $1.5 mil for this year, and allowed us to re sign Houston.

As far as the salary cap goes, we have $18 mil AFTER Berry's franchise tender. That number may go up if he signs a long term contact that will likely have a lower cap number this year and higher numbers in the future.

Allen isn't coming back, he has said all that much in interviews (he doesn't like having to know multiple positions) and is looking for a pay day.

So we have $18 mil to sign DJ, Smith, Howard/DeVito and our draft picks. Draft picks will be probably around $7 mil. I can very much see us signing DJ, Smith and someone on the DL or an OL to cap friendly contracts that keep us under the cap.

[jason1981]

Jeff allen might be the one that will hurt us the most if we lose him. I say put him at lg guard perminately. Cut ben grubbs. He sucked. Allen may have been our best lineman. Atleast top 3.

[jap1]

Jeff allen might be the one that will hurt us the most if we lose him. I say put him at lg guard perminately. Cut ben grubbs. He sucked. Allen may have been our best lineman. Atleast top 3.

Cutting Grubbs would cost $6.8 mil. I'm hoping he either comes back healthier and stronger than last year, or retires, so we aren't hit with cap issues.