Arrowhead Pride
We now have the details for the contract given to the versatile Kansas City defensive end.
We have now obtained the details for the last two contracts the Kansas City Chiefs executed in free agency: the ones for cornerback Robert Rochell and defensive end Charles Omenihu.
As we expected, Rochell was signed to a Veteran Salary Benefit (VSB) deal that allows Kansas City to pay him the NFL minimum salary for a player with four credited seasons ($1.2 million) but have it count the same as a contract for a player with only two credited seasons ($1.0 million). Under the rules for these contracts, teams can pay a signing bonus of up to $167,500, which counts against the cap. We expected that the Chiefs would do this with Rochell — but according to the salary-cap site Spotrac, they did not.
Kansas City now has seven VSB contracts under which players earn a total of $9.0 million for 2025, but count only $7.7 million against the cap.
Reporting at signing as a one-year deal worth up to $7 million, we estimated that Omenihu’s contract would carry a 2025 cap hit between $2.5 million and $5 million, — most likely around $4.5 million. But according to Spotrac, his current cap number is $3.7 million.
That comes from a base salary of $2.8 million, a signing bonus of $650,000, a workout bonus of $40,000 and a per-game roster bonus of $30,000. Since he was active for just six games in 2024, $180,000 of that bonus will be charged to the cap as likely-to-be-earned (LBTE) this season. If he is active for all 17 games, the additional $330,000 (and up to $3 million in undisclosed incentives) is considered not-likely-to-be-earned (NLTBE) in 2025 — so if earned, it will count against the 2026 cap.
Omenihu’s 2025 base salary is guaranteed, bringing his total guarantees to $3.5 million.
With the details for these two contracts in hand, we now estimate that the Chiefs have $11.6 million in cap space.
