With training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri, just around the corner, the Kansas City Chiefs find themselves with newfound cap space as a result of Trey Smith’s four-year contract extension. 

Smith’s deal is worth $94 million with $46.75 million fully guaranteed and $70 million in total practical guarantees, which includes a $17 million signing bonus (prorated across the four years of the contract). He’ll $23.5 million on a per-year average, which is essentially what he was making on the franchise tag.

His contract does not carry a guaranteed salary for 2027 and 2028. The final year of the deal (2028) is either an extension or an out year, with a $27.75 million cap hit and $23.5 million saved if cut. What intrigues most in the contract’s structure? The cap space that it immediately frees up ahead of training camp and the 2025 NFL season. 

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Chiefs have some salary cap flexibility heading into training camp, but how will they use it?

Ahead of Trey Smith’s deal, the Chiefs had approximately $11.2 million in available salary cap space, according to the NFLPA’s public salary cap report. Upon signing his new deal, Smith will now have a salary cap hit of $14.25 million for the 2025 NFL season. That’s substantially smaller than the $23.4 million cap hit Smith would’ve carried on the franchise tag in 2025.

According to the folks at OverTheCap, Kansas City now has over $20 million in available cap space to play with for the 2025 NFL season. That’s good for 20th in the league in terms of effective salary cap space. The Chiefs typically carry between $5 million and $8 million in cap space during the NFL’s regular season, which allows them to handle trades, signings, and procedural moves. That means they’ve got between $12 million and $15 million of cap space to play with heading into the 2025 NFL season if they choose to do so. But what could they use that salary cap space for?

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Is a Trent McDuffie extension up next for the Chiefs?

The Chiefs have a lot of business to attend to with the 2022 NFL Draft class, the majority of whom are pending free agents in 2026. Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis both saw the team pick up their fifth-year options, but McDuffie is believed to be the next player in line for a long-term contract extension. 

Kansas City doesn’t exactly need 2025 cap space to facilitate a long-term extension with either McDuffie or Karlaftis, given that they’re both under contract through 2026 with the fifth-year options. There is already precedent for McDuffie’s deal to include a fifth-year option in 2026 (see the contracts of Derek Stingley Jr. and Sauce Gardner). New money on those deals wouldn’t necessarily kick in until 2027. 

While McDuffie and Karlaftis are certainly on the agenda, one use for the cap space could be a reworked contract for Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. While he leads the pack in total value ($450M), 13 players at the position have a higher AAV ($45m) and total guaranteed money ($141M). Reworking that contract alongside Smith’s deal and hypothetical deals for McDuffie, Karlaftis, and others could help the team plan the next era of their salary cap to some extent. 

There’s also the possibility that the Chiefs seek to roll over any unused salary cap space into the 2026 league year, but I have a hard time believing the team created cap space in 2025 for no reason.