Yeah - I just keep circling back to the Montez Sweat deal.

I don't see a ton of distinction between the two and Sweat got $24.5 million in AAV.

The argument has never been 'Is Karlaftis a good player' -- he absolutely is. I just really don't think he's THAT good. That's not 're-set the market' good, but it's the top of the 2nd tier.

That's top 10 defensive lineman in football money. He's good - he isn't THAT good. But when someone like Rashan Gary gets $24 million/season, that's going to be the starting point for Karlaftis.

https://overthecap.com/position/edge-rusher

Where's he and his agent gonna argue they slot in there? I'd imagine it's a hell of alot closer to 25 million than 19 million.

As all things, it will come down to structure. All I care about is what the cap hits are in the first few years and what the dead cap/savings is for when we can cut him

Well, he'll probably get 75 million dollars guaranteed, atleast. So structure however, but unless the guy is an alpha pass rusher that teams plan around, I'm not overly excited about that.

Karlaftis at 25 million a year or Chase Young at 16 million a year

That's not a tough decision right?

It's not always that simple though. George is best with a strong secondary behind him and a guy that draws the doubles. We have both. That high motor allows for those coverage sacks and Chris Jones flushed the qb his way sacks. He's a great compliment to what we have.

Not saying we should pay big bucks to keep him, just thought chase young had questions about his effort at times.

If you told me Frank Clark had more playoff sacks than Derrick Thomas and Chris Jones combined, I would slap you. But you'd be correct.

Young has 22 sacks in 5 seasons while George has 31.5 in 3.

And is a playoff game changer.

I’d confidently argue to keep George in that scenario.

Might've been George Blowfish.

Oh, I'd much rather have Young in that scenario.

Because sooner or later you gotta pay for that strong secondary. And Chris Jones isn't getting any younger.

Presuming his argument to be correct, that's a stronger argument in FAVOR of Young than Karlaftis, IMO.

Not as a player in a vacuum, but as an asset on a cap sheet.

A guy that needs to have a ton of money spent around him to be effective isn't worth a ton of money in his own right. It's the conversation we've had many times with Mahomes.

If your QB needs the best OL in football to be worth $50 million, then he wasn't ever worth $50 million.

At a point, you need to expect the guys you're paying massive money to be able to win on their own.

If you didn't pay Creed Humphrey you could have paid both him and McDuffie but hiking the ball is important

The cap isn't so restrictive that you can't have 'throughput' at every level of the offense and defense.

But it's hard to double up.

Humphrey is clearly the throughput of this OL long-term. Kelce has been the throughput of the pass-catchers. Jones on the DL, Bolton almost certainly the LBs, McDuffie at CB.

And anywhere you double up, it's going to cost you. So when you also have Thuney and Taylor next season with a big figure for Creed, that's going to cost you at RB. It might cost you at DL (i.e. Karlaftis). Rice won't have a big cap hit until after Thuney and/or Taylor or gone, so he's not really in the equation yet.

But Karlaftis is the one guy I can see in the 'next wave' of young Chiefs that may get squeezed out. Maybe not. Karlaftis has this year and, if necessary, his 5th year option before he gets really expensive. That's 2 of the remaining 3 years on Jones deal. And by then, you'll have found cap space with Taylor, Thuney and Kelce.

We CAN afford him.

The only question is if it would be the best way to allocate the resources.

choosing between Chase Young and George Karlaftis is tricky. Young has never reached his ceiling while Karlaftis has reached quite a bit higher than his floor.

They are literally dead even in pressures. Gun to my head give me the guy who is younger, could get even better and has performed very well when it matters.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">NFL Pressure Leaders heading into Week 18 via <a href="https://twitter.com/PFF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PFF</a>: <a href="https://t.co/Pg7jVifnLc">pic.twitter.com/Pg7jVifnLc</a></p>&mdash; Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) <a href="https://twitter.com/Marcus_Mosher/status/1874110334275088809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I don't disagree, Run. In a vacuum.

The question becomes if there's a significant difference in cost. And it's very likely that there will be.

If there's not -- I'll take the guy that's done it for us, who has the floor of fringe Pro Bowler and who's come up with the team.

But man, if we're talking another $6-8 million/yr for Karlaftis over Young...boy, it's tough to find arguments for GK in that case.

Now if young goes out there and is getting $20 million AAV bids on the open market or requires tag and trade compensation, the conversation is really short and ends in GK's favor pretty quickly.

But I don't think that's what we're gonna see.

A new deal with Karlaftis could also be back-loaded to manage the cap up front. Then, you're really only responsible for that portion of the signing bonus for the first year or two.

Karlaftis leads all edge rushers in QB hits with 21. The next closes is TJ Watt with 17. He seems to have improved each year.

Karlaftis is only 23 years old still and can definitely be better, but I don't think he's going to be a Myles Garrett type. Itd be hard to give him a top contract, but it'd be hard to let him leave. Idk, I'd like to see him play several games without CJ next to him, but that isn't an option.

Yeah when Karlaftis was drafted I liked him but didn’t love him. Thought he was similar to Bolton i.e. high floor/low ceiling.

He’s definitely pushed that floor really really high and I think it’s fair to say he is still getting better.

A young proven 10 sack a year guy who produces in January would not make me upset if we opened the checkbook

The crazy thing about that list is that Tpassagnon is on it and that Jones is only 1/2 a sack ahead of him.

Omenihu is a big part of it too though... What are GK's stats with and without Omenihu? (or however it is spelled)

It's a tall order, but it would be pretty cool to see Karlaftis catch Frank Clark this off-season. 3.5 sacks in 2 games is certainly achievable.

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Good segment between Rich Eisen and our boy George.

You could have some fun and not extend George, Sign Young, and see what happens s for a year.

I’d absolutely sign young next year and let omenihu (who I do really like) walk.

Then figure it out

You have to pay edge rushers. Those are as hard to come by as OTs.

How about Albert Lewis having more than Tamba Hali?

The Super Bowl Mic’d up with Karlaftis recovering the fumble while George Kittle was goofing around is one of my favorite all-time hilights.

“Hi George.”

And he’s clean.

No injury history or off field concern….good teammate, is still improving and his advanced stats suggest he’s going to have a big year next season. Very young and the entire contract would be for his prime years. Veach would be brilliant to try and ink GK to a long term contract EXTENSION at current market value.

If he can’t, we still have GK under team control the next 2 seasons after this and a franchise year after that.

I loved him. I wanted him since his freshman year at Purdue. I just love the kid.

Fingers crossed!

I think this game will be a big test to just how much he’s improved and if we should pay him. If he can get pressure on Allen against this line then the dude has arrived.

Dude saved the season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bills knew they&#39;d be going for it on 4th down on the final drive. 3rd &amp; 10 call was safe to pick up yardage<br><br>Except <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> all-out blitzed and were vulnerable to a WR screen<br><br>Geroge Karlaftis saves this from becoming a huge run after the catch down the sideline <a href="https://t.co/Kyk1jh4szA">pic.twitter.com/Kyk1jh4szA</a></p>&mdash; Ron Kopp Jr. (@Ron_Kopp) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ron_Kopp/status/1884738512571810239?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Furious George is an amazing man. Trust me...

I bet women think he's the hottest guy on the team

I'm calling it now.

George K is going to have a monster season. I saw something different in him during the playoffs. He was faster off the edge and was more dominant. It's like something just clicked for him.

15-18 sacks and then he gets paid

I met his girlfriend at the AFCCG. She's super nice. Everything about George just seems super wholesome.

GK is an awesome person...