The Kansas City Chiefs are set to sign former Jacksonville Jaguars OT Jawaan Taylor on a four-year contract. While they can’t officially consummate the deal until free agency opens on Wednesday, the contract numbers are already out in the wild. At face value it looks like a good contract for Kansas City, leaving the team with flexibility in 2023 and the future.
According to the folks at OverTheCap, Taylor carries a low base salary of $1.08 million in 2023, with $4.725 million in prorated bonus money and a $20K workout bonus. It brings his first-year cap hit up to $5.825 million, leaving Kansas City with somewhere around $9 million in cap space remaining for 2023. They do have several other ways to create more cap space this season, including a Chris Jones extension and a number of other restructures.
For each of the following three years after 2023, Taylor carries a $19.5 million base salary along with $4.725 million in prorated bonus money, giving him cap hits of $24.725 million in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
A total of $40 million is guaranteed at the signing of the contract and the Chiefs can realistically get out of the contract after two years, but more likely three years. Ideally, Kansas City likes what they see from Taylor in 2023 and restructure his contract next year (prior to $20 million of the deal becoming fully guaranteed on the third day of the new league year) to create some space and push money into future years when the salary cap is expected to rise.
