A major question mark still hanging over the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason was the “will they or won’t they?” decision about Dee Ford’s future with the team. The Chiefs bought themselves time to think about things when they exercised his fifth year option, but they also set themselves up for the sort of automatic scenario that’s playing out now: a guarantee in case of injury.
When the Chiefs said they wanted to hold the keys to Dee Ford’s future, they opened themselves up for this very storyline. Exercising a fifth year option on a player means that a team can decide before the new league year (March 14, in this case) whether or not they want to keep that player at a set price for the following season.