The salary cap hasn’t been set, but the Chiefs expect it to be between $92 million and $95 million when the league year begins March 3.

The last time the Chiefs faced a similar overage was in 2001, when they had to sacrifice veterans such as Elvis Grbac, James Hasty and Chester McGlockton to squeeze under the limit.

Asked whether the necessary moves to comply with the cap would be similar this year, Peterson said: “Not to the same degree. We’re going to be fine. We’re a little heavy right now. We’ve been through this the last couple of months on what moves we’d have to make regarding the cap.”

Yet with as much as $24 million to trim, the Chiefs won’t be able to avoid some pain.

One way for the Chiefs to create cap space is to release players from their contracts, as the Chiefs did with Grbac, Hasty and McGlockton five years ago. The problem this year is that many of the most obvious candidates are too expensive to cut.

Two players who would seem like prime candidates, safety Jerome Woods and running back Priest Holmes, would actually cost the Chiefs more to cut than to keep them on the team and pay them their base salaries.

Documents show the Chiefs would save about $4 million in cap space by releasing linebacker Kendrell Bell. Others who could be in danger include cornerbacks Eric Warfield (savings of about $2.7 million) and Dexter McCleon (about $1.2 million).

“There will be veteran guys and you’ll want to keep them, but you can’t keep them at the money they’re making,” Edwards said without being specific.