[Kansas City.com] The Chiefs released four players on Thursday, but despite rumors to the contrary, guard Will Shields was not one of the cuts.

Yet.

“I could play here, I could play for another team, or I could not play at all. You never can tell,” said Shields, an 11-time Pro Bowler whose $5.1 million salary, coupled with the Chiefs’ dicey cap situation, led a couple of media outlets to jump the gun Thursday and report that he had been cut.

“I’m not going to worry about it. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”

Retaining Shields would go against the Chiefs’ youth movement, but Carl Peterson made it clear Thursday that Shields is a special situation. He’s started 207 straight games and has been the anchor of one of the NFL’s best offensive lines. He sat for much of training camp in 2005 but made it back to the Pro Bowl again this winter.

“If it’s necessary for us to terminate the last year of his contract,” Peterson said, “No. 1, it’s not going to be a surprise to Will or his agent or anybody else because when we did this contract six years ago, I think all of us at the time understand free-agency, and very, very seldom does a guy get to play the entire contract out that he signed.”

“Based on what happens here, if we terminate his contract, we are not terminating Will Shields’ opportunity for finishing his career with the Kansas City Chiefs. The first and foremost thing from the beginning has been Will’s decision about what he wants to do.”