Kansas City remade its front office and its coaching staff, and now it gets to work on its roster. One of the first of those significant moves came Tuesday, when the Chiefs cut veteran CB Patrick Surtain.
The move removed Surtain's $7 million base salary off Kansas City's books and instantly freed up $6.184 million that the Chiefs now will be able to spend on free agents and draft picks.
Surtain, 32, isn't expected to be the last Chiefs player released before Friday. Veteran LB Donnie Edwards also could be in jeopardy, as he is scheduled to make $5 million in base salary. If he is released, it would free up another $4.5 million in salary-cap savings.
It's the time of the year when the size of the free-agent pool grows by the day. It happened Tuesday in Kansas City, and it will happen again Wednesday and Thursday in other cities.