1:52pm: Bowe has officially been released by the Chiefs, tweets Rapoport. The wideout issued a statement on Twitter thanking the organization for his time spent in Kansas City.
THURSDAY, 1:00pm: The Chiefs are cutting Bowe today, tweets Schefter.
TUESDAY, 12:15pm: Indications point to the Chiefs releasing Bowe this week, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter) hears that it’ll probably take place on Wednesday.
THURSDAY, 2:11pm: Having franchised Justin Houston earlier this week, the Chiefs currently sit more than $5MM over the 2015 cap, and will need to cut some salary from their books by Tuesday. One likely candidate to be affected by those cut-cutting moves? Wide receiver Dwayne Bowe. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), the Chiefs are expected to either release or trade Bowe this month.
Bowe, 30, was part of the underachieving and record-setting group of Chiefs wide receivers that managed to go the entire 2014 season without catching a single touchdown pass. It was the third straight mediocre season for Bowe, who has averaged approximately 59 receptions and 743 yards per season since 2012, on the heels of back-to-back 1,100-yard seasons in 2010 and 2011.
The Chiefs have already signaled a commitment to retooling their wide receiving corps, parting ways with Donnie Avery and A.J. Jenkins earlier in the offseason. It appears that Bowe will be next, in some form or other. With three years still left on his contract and annual base salaries of $10.75MM, $9.75MM, and $9.75MM, Bowe likely won’t attract much attention on the trade market — especially when other more established wideouts like Andre Johnson and Brandon Marshall are also being shopped.
If the Chiefs ultimately decide to cut Bowe, it would create $5MM in cap savings, which would go a long way toward getting the team under the cap for the 2015 league year. However, it would still leave $9MM in dead money on the books. Designating Bowe as a post-June 1 cut would create more 2015 cap room, but the team would have to wait until after June 1 to actually gain access to that cap room, and it would push some of Bowe’s dead money onto Kansas City’s 2016 cap.
If Bowe were to become available, he would likely generate plenty of interest, even during a month when many noteworthy receivers are expected to hit the open market. Potential suitors for the former first-round pick may suspect that his poor production in recent years can be attributed in part to a Chiefs offense that relies on short, safe passes, limiting Bowe’s upside.