With just a few weeks removed from the regular season kickoff, the Kansas City Chiefs are left with a little over $3.99 million in effective cap space. But when has that ever stopped them from making moves? When they entered the 2026 offseason, they were about $60 million over the league’s salary cap, but they made big moves anyway. That’s why when assistant general manager Chris Shea faced cap questions in a recent presser, he didn’t sound the least bit worried.

“Well, we feel good about where we’re at,” Shea said, per Chiefs reporter Matt Derrick. “Obviously, the rules change a little bit when the season starts. Certain things come onto the cap that aren’t there now. You know, we have a plan to create ample space for us to be able to operate with those charges that come on and create some flexibility.

“You know, we have lots of avenues to create more flexibility and more cap space. We may take advantage of some or all in the next few weeks, but we certainly have the ability and likely will create some cap space to get us into the regular season.”

Now, we all know by now how General Manager Brett Veach and Chris Shea operate. Restructuring contracts to free up cap space is second nature to them by now, and if that doesn’t work, the Chiefs have already shown this offseason they won’t second-guess cutting their losses if it brings them a chance to sign a playmaker.

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This offseason, the Chiefs let go of Jawaan Taylor and Mike Danna to free up about $29 million in cap space. Linebacker Drue Tranquill agreed to a pay cut of over $2 million this year. In seasons past, veteran stars like TE Travis Kelce and DT Chris Jones have been more than willing to restructure their contracts to keep their playoff windows wide open. If the Chiefs don’t cut anybody – which is always an active option if you underperform under Andy Reid – more restructures could be looming as a potential way out.

Franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes agreed to a restructure for the fifth time in his NFL career this offseason; the Chiefs converted $44.05 million of his base salary alongside a $10.4 million roster bonus into a signing bonus, creating $43.56 million wiggle room to build around him. And these weren’t the only moves Shea oversaw.

Per Over The Cap, Chris Jones sits at the top of the cap hit table ($44.85M). Mahomes has already done his part this year and sits at No. 2 on that list with a cap hit of $34.65 million. Behind him is a $24.49M cap hit for Trey Smith, a $19.25M hit for Nick Bolton, $18.68M for Jaylon Moore, $18.1M for Creed Humphrey, and $13M for Kristian Fulton.

Among these top earners, Trey Smith had already restructured his contract last season to free up $735K in cap space. It won’t be far-fetched to assume he takes another one for his team this year, with the rest of the big earners following suit. The roster cuts will, of course, depend on how their training camp evaluations turn out, but once the final 53 are locked in, these cuts could very well be a part of Shea’s “avenues.”

Right now, only the Pittsburgh Steelers are below the Chiefs in effective cap space ($1.12M). But leave it to Brett Veach and Chris Shea, and Kansas City might just be able to make some bold moves to build depth around Patrick Mahomes before he enters his 10th NFL regular season. We simply have to wait for the hammers to drop.