Kansas City Chiefs sign DT Khyiris Tonga

The Kansas City Chiefs' three-year, $21M signing of defensive tackle Khyiris Tonga earns a D Contract Value Index (CVI), a grade that reflects significant structural inefficiency in a defensive acquisition during a critical reset period. At $7M AAV, Tonga's deal lands in the middle-tier salary band for interior linemen—expensive enough to occupy meaningful cap real estate, yet the player profile doesn't command that premium in a league where elite run-stuffers and pass-rush threats at his position routinely anchor rosters at lower AAV. For a Chiefs team sitting at 6-11 and outside the playoff picture, committing $21M guaranteed across three years to a rotational defensive tackle represents an opportunity cost the franchise can ill afford; that capital could have been redirected toward proven offensive weapons, secondary depth, or flexible rollover flexibility as the rebuild accelerates. The CVI grade reflects a mismatch between salary outlay and positional scarcity—Tonga occupies a replaceable archetype, and the contract's multiyear structure locks Kansas City into that opportunity cost precisely when roster agility matters most. This deal exemplifies the kind of mid-level signing that neither moves the needle toward contention nor provides cost-effective depth, landing squarely in the overpriced backup category that hamstrings salary-cap planning without delivering tangible returns.