On Wednesday, the Kansas City Chiefs made a surprise move: trading All-Preo left guard Joe Thuney to the Chicago Bears for a 2026 fourth-round draft pick.

Before this trade, Kansas City was $16.9 million over the salary cap after applying the $32.4 million non-exclusive franchise tag to right guard Trey Smith.

The Bears will take over Thuney’s 2025 salary of $15.5 million (and Thuney’s $500,000 workout bonus). Meanwhile, the Chiefs will carry $11.0 million in dead money from $3.4 million in signing bonus proration and $7.6 million in restructure proration.

According to the salary-cap site Spotrac, this leaves the Chiefs $1.1 million over the salary cap. But Spotrac is not counting second-year offensive lineman McKade Mettauer’s $960,000 cap hit, so we believe Kansas City is now $2.0 million over the cap.

The team will not have to be under the salary cap until the new league year officially begins at 3 p.m. Arrowhead Time on Wednesday, March 12 — so before then, we will see additional moves to create cap space.