Reid says Chiefs had mulled over cutting Maclin for a while

KANSAS CITY, MO. » Alex Smith acknowledged his surprise over the weekend when he learned the Chiefs had released Jeremy Maclin, depriving the quarterback of arguably his most consistent and veteran wide receiver.

Turns out the decision had been in the works for a while.

Head coach Andy Reid said following a voluntary workout Tuesday that Maclin can still play, and the timing of the move should allow him to hook on with another team. But without discussing the reasons behind the move, Reid did acknowledge that general manager John Dorsey had been mulling it over.

“That’s mostly his area and I know he’s had that rolling around for a while as he’s gone through,” Reid said. “You try to weigh everything. That’s part of this game today. That’s what it is.”

Pressed on the reasons behind the move, Reid replied: “I’m not going into specifics.”

Still, those specifics are fairly easy to discern.

The Chiefs had been bumping up against the salary cap prior to the move Friday, and would have had trouble signing their three remaining draft picks. But by releasing Maclin after June 1, they saved about $10 million that they can add to the roughly $3.5 million they had available.

Maclin was entering the third year of a $55 million, five-year contract. He was due a base salary of $9.75 million this season with a salary cap hit of $12.4 million.