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Kansas City Chiefs made easy, but vital WR cuts

By Kevin Parvizi

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We all know that the Kansas City Chiefs biggest needs this offseason lie on the offensive side of the ball, because they could use a true No. 1 receiver and a big-time offensive lineman after losing both Geoff Schwartz and Jon Asamoah last offseason without adequately replacing either. Adding another offensive tackle wouldn’t be a bad idea either, especially if Eric Fisher‘s improvements down the stretch of the 2014 season don’t prove to yield results. Even if Fisher plays well, having a nice bookend would do wonders for the entire offense.

Like every team, the Chiefs and their fans have a wishlist this offseason, but it’s hard for them to fill out check marks without adequate cap space. Given that the team will have to allocate major funds in order to lock up Justin Houston, there won’t be much to go around in free agency. They could sacrifice Tamba Hali as a cap casualty in order to pay Houston, as they drafted Dee Ford in the first round for a reason.

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As it stands right now, according to Over The Cap, the Chiefs are back “in the green” as far as cap space goes, as they made two important cuts yesterday, releasing wide receivers Donnie Avery and A.J. Jenkins. Neither player made any sort of an impact last season, and both were easy cuts.

For some teams, it would seem counter-intuitive to release players at a position of need, but the Chiefs clearly didn’t need either Avery or Jenkins. I’ll start with Jenkins’s release, since that’s the easiest one. This is a guy who is just 25 but already looks like a safe bust with just 17 career receptions. He never caught a pass for the San Francisco 49ers before being traded to K.C. in 2013 for fellow WR bust Jon Baldwin, and the fact that Jenkins has been unable to catch more than nine passes in a season for a WR-hungry Chiefs team is downright pathetic.

Jenkins will have to fight for a spot on a 53-man roster going forward, because the only things he has going for him at this point are age and draft pedigree. He’s on the fast-track to dropping out of the league if he doesn’t make the most of his next opportunity, because he’s already failed in two good situations with the Niners and Chiefs.

Avery’s release is the most important from the Chiefs perspective, because his release saved a nice chunk of cash for John Dorsey and the organization by clearing out $3.4 million against the cap. He was the team’s only viable deep threat over the past couple of seasons and did a credible job of taking on defenses over the top, but he brought nothing of value to the team outside of his speed. Famous for his drops, Avery had six of them in 2013 and averaged just 37.3 receiving yards per game as the team’s inconsistent No. 2 WR behind Dwayne Bowe.

His 2014 season saw him as a participant in just six games, and, at first, this was because of an injury, but he later became a healthy scratch. Even though he averaged an excellent 14.9 yards per reception in his first season with the Chiefs and showed some playmaking ability, the Chiefs knew it wasn’t worth it. Avery’s just too inconsistent, and he’s not a good enough route-runner to carve out more than a niche role as a situational deep threat. He’ll find work somewhere, but he won’t cost over $3 million against the cap at his new job either.

While Jenkins did next to nothing in his two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, Avery’s release was honestly the more obvious decision of the two for Dorsey and Co. Not only did he put in subpar performances with just his vertical ability as a saving grace, but he was simply too expensive to keep around as someone who wasn’t even good enough to play for, again, a team that will most likely draft a WR in the first round.

The Chiefs are now out of the negatives when it comes to cap space, but they’ll have to do more in order to re-sign Houston, who will almost certainly be given the franchise tag with neither team making enough progress in negotiations. Houston is dead-set on making as much money as possible after an incredible, near record-breaking campaign in the sacks department following two excellent seasons. He’s young, he’s a beast, and he’s one of the team’s three most important players.

That money has to come from somewhere, and now the onus is on another receiver who could get cut. Bowe is the team’s de facto No. 1 receiver, and his release would all but guarantee that the team will draft a wideout in the first round (if that isn’t locked in already in some people’s minds). While Bowe is still a quality possession receiver, he’s not worth $11 million.

Avery and Jenkins were two easy clear-outs at wide receiver and save plenty of money, but more is needed for Houston and, possibly, a lineman. In order to get to the point where they have the cap space to get stuff done, they’ll have to release at least one key player in Bowe and Hali.

Next: Very early look at Chiefs chances in 2015

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