Safety Mike Edwards’ cap hit comes in just below $3 million for 2023

Mar 24, 2023 - 4:55 PM

On St. Patrick’s Day — the day Kansas City Chiefs fans celebrate quarterback Patrick Mahomes having tens of millions of dollars guaranteed in a future year of his contract — the team also signed free-agent safety Mike Edwards to a one-year contract.

The deal was initially reported to be for $3 million, with incentives that could push the total compensation to $5 million.

We now have the complete details on Edwards’ deal with the Chiefs.

It begins with a base salary of $1.08 million, the NFL minimum for a player with the four credited seasons Edwards collected with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Chiefs have also paid him a $1.4 million sighing bonus — and agreed to a $20,000 workout bonus. Edwards will collect the latter payment if he participates in the voluntary parts of the team’s offseason program.

Finally, the team has agreed to pay Edwards a total of $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses. That all adds up to the even $3 million that was reported.

But since Edwards appeared in just 13 regular-season games for Tampa Bay last season, only 13/17ths of that $500,000 ($382,353) is counted against the 2023 salary cap as likely-to-be-earned (LTBE) money. Should Edwards earn the remaining $117,467 by playing in all 17 regular-season games, that (along with up to $2 million in unspecified incentives) will be considered not-likely-to-be-earned (NLTBE) — and will count against the 2024 salary cap.

Including all known signings, the Chiefs now have 60 players under contract. We estimate that the team has something between $3.6 and $5.5 million in cap space — but very likely near $4.9 million.