Jawaan Taylor, Drue Tranquill might not face salary cap savings buzzsaw like former Kansas City Chiefs DE Mike Danna

Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach spoke about the team’s salary cap situation, Mike Danna’s release, and the potential for more cuts.

Charles Goldman — NFL Managing Editor
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The Kansas City Chiefs continue to navigate their salary cap situation to get themselves into compliance ahead of the new league year on March 11.

They’ve orchestrated two moves to get themselves further out of the red after being. The team restructured the contract of QB Patrick Mahomes last week, creating $43 million in salary cap space. On Monday, the team announced they’d released DE Mike Danna, with a move that creates $8.9 million in salary cap space compared to just over $2 million in dead money.

Chiefs GM Brett Veach confirmed on Tuesday that the team is still over the salary cap, but their plan to get in compliance might not include another roster cut.

Chiefs GM Brett Veach says Jawaan Taylor and Drue Tranquill might be safe from salary cap cuts

Veach was asked specifically about RT Jawaan Taylor, who many believed would be a cut candidate for Kansas City. Taylor carries the third-highest salary cap hit of any player on the team behind Chris Jones and Patrick Mahomes. He would free $20 million in salary cap space if he were released, with around $7 million in dead money. Veach’s response to the question? He began by explaining how the decision with Mike Danna was different.

“So with Jawaan (Taylor), Mike Danna was a little unique, and different,” Veach explained. “Mike Danna was in the building this week. I had a chance to talk to Mike, and you guys know, Mike, I mean, he is as good as it gets, just a tremendous player and person, and have a lot of respect for him. And (we) wanted to just have that opportunity, since I saw him this weekend, to just let him go out there and see what his market is, and we’ll remain in contact.”

It seems the Chiefs would’ve preferred to keep Danna on a reduced contract, but they wanted to give him an opportunity to test the market in free agency. Beyond that, Danna was an easier situation to move on from because the team already needed improvement at defensive end. Cutting players viewed as good starters, like Jawaan Taylor or Drue Tranquill, would make another hole for the team to solve in free agency or the 2026 NFL Draft.

“And I think with, you know, with guys like Jawaan (Taylor) and Drue Tranquil, someone asked me about earlier, you know, these guys started for us, and they play a lot of football for us,” Veach continued. “And again, our cap situation, I don’t know if we’re six or seven over, but I think we have $60 million in convertible contracts, too. So, I mean, we have many different ways to attack this, and I think that’s the one thing that we’ve been good at. And we don’t do a lot of money pushed down in the future years, and I think we run a pretty tight ship there, so this gives us flexibility to do different things. So again, that’s part of the process with all those guys, and we’ll see how the scenario shakes out.”

The Chiefs are frugal with how they do business. They don’t typically do void years and work really hard to limit their dead money each year. They’ve got a strict budget for cash spend, which can make things quite challenging. Brett Veach’s comments indicate they would much prefer to restructure other contracts to get the team into salary cap compliance and free up money to spend in free agency. Does that mean with certainty that they won’t release players like Taylor or Tranquill? There are other factors at play that could force a decision on one or both of those players, like a contract extension for Trent McDuffie or Travis Kelce returning to the team for Year 14. There are also other non-starters, like Jaylon Moore and Noah Gray, who could be released, albeit for lesser salary cap savings.

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