When perusing a list of the most outlandish cap numbers around the league at the start of the offseason, it was hard not to focus on the $17.5 million figure held by Chiefs defensive end Tyson Jackson.
Jackson, the third overall pick in the 2009 draft, has struggled as a pass rusher (five sacks in 59 career games) and added little to a run defense that has regularly ranked near the bottom of the league in his four years in Kansas City. There aren’t a ton of defensive ends whose production makes it easy to swallow that cap number, to say nothing of a $14.72 million salary, and Jackson was not one of them.
So it’s no surprise that Bill Williamson of ESPN.com reports that Jackson “redid” his contract in order to remain with the team. He was on the fast track to being released if he didn’t agree to cut those gargantuan numbers down and that’s just what he’s done. There are no specifics on the new figures, but there was such a large gap between his salary and his actual value that we’d expect a pretty significant alteration.
With Jackson remaining in the fold, the Chiefs will only have to concentrate on replacing one starting defensive end this offseason. Glenn Dorsey is a free agent and the fact that he shares a last name with the team’s new general manager isn’t expected to keep him in town.