The Chiefs started their salary cap purge Thursday by terminating the contracts of four veteran players: cornerbacks Eric Warfield and Dexter McCleon and linebackers Shawn Barber and Gary Stills.
The moves cleared out $6.3 million, but the Chiefs have more work to do to get under the $94.5 million salary cap. They started the day $18.1 million over the cap, so these moves leave them $11.9 million over.
The Chiefs are in the process of restructuring contracts and considering other releases of veteran players.
Other veterans who could fall under the salary cap knife are guard Will Shields and safeties Jerome Woods and Greg Wesley, but nothing is done at this time.
Stills has been the Chiefs' best special teams player and was
voted to the Pro Bowl after the 2003 season.
Warfield, an eight-year veteran, started 10 games at right
cornerback last season, after sitting out the first four games of
the year for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.
John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.