Kansas City Chiefs Clear Space, Release Two Wide Receivers
The Kansas City Chiefs have started to clear roster and salary cap space by releasing two wide receivers Donnie Avery and A.J. Jenkins on Tuesday.
Without these two receivers, the Chiefs save about $5 million. If general manager John Dorsey and coach Andy Reid want to potentially bring in or keep key players who will become free agents next month, they will have to carve out more cap space.
The Chiefs signed Avery two years ago and expected a fast receiver that can pose as a major threat to other teams. In 2013, Avery only caught 40 passes for 596 and two touchdowns and then for the most part of last season, Avery had to deal with a sports hernia. He was inactive for the last two weeks of the regular season.
Jenkins was traded to the Chiefs from the San Francisco 49ers. He caught 17 passes for 223 yards in 25 games. He did not record a single touchdown catch.
"I wrote about him after the draft. I thought he was the reach of the first round and I had him as a late second-round pick. And I didn't feel particularly comfortable about him there. He didn't have the toughness I thought was necessary, especially in a division where you could already see it was becoming one of the more physical in the NFL. I did not like that pick," CBS Sports draft guru, Rob Rang said about Jenkins who was the 30th overall pick in the 2012 draft.
The Chiefs reportedly will be focused on keeping linebacker Justin Houston and center Rodney Hudson, who will become free agents. The Chiefs are meeting Houston's representative and hope to sign a long-term deal. If both sides do not come to an agreement, Houston could be franchised, which the Chiefs would have to do before March 2. He would then most likely be offered a one-year deal wroth around $13 million. Once the franchise tag is used, the Chiefs will have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal.
If the Chiefs can successfully sign Houston to a long-term deal, they could franchise Hudson, who was one of the top centers last season.
