Offensive tackle Orlando Brown, Jr. joined the Kansas City Chiefs last year via trade and ended up starting every game for them and earning his third Pro Bowl. With his contract up, the Chiefs had a choice to make regarding one of the key players to protect quarterback Patrick Mahomes and they’ve made that choice by putting their franchise tag on him, per Adam Schefter.
Kansas City Chiefs are franchise tagging OT Orlando Brown, per league sources. Brown becomes the first free-agent-to-be this off-season known to be getting the franchise tag.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 7, 2022
This makes Brown the first player to get the franchise tag this off-season. The deadline for teams to designate someone as a franchise player is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.
Brown is the son of longtime NFL offensive tackle Orlando Brown and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in 2018. He ended up starting 52 games for the Ravens before coming over to KC because he wanted to play left tackle, a position that was occupied with his previous team.
The Chiefs gave up four draft picks, including their 2021 first-rounder, to acquire Brown, which is perhaps part of the reason why they want to try to keep him in-house instead of letting him become a free agent. There’s also the fact that he is the only offensive tackle in the NFL to be selected to a Pro Bowl in all of the last 3 seasons. Not bad for a guy who had one of the worst NFL Combines ever.
Orlando Brown is the only OT selected to a Pro Bowl in each of the last 3 seasons.
He is one of six offensive linemen overall alongside G Joel Bitonio, G Quenton Nelson, C Ryan Kelly, C Jason Kelce and G Brandon Scherff. https://t.co/SyaYlMEXRH pic.twitter.com/t6RngM0ZGn
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 7, 2022
The one downside to tagging Brown is that, at least temporarily, they’ll be over the salary cap. However, that should change in the coming days as they work out decisions on other players.
Brown’s tag is $16.5M and temporarily puts KC over the cap. That’ll change this week with a pending decision on Frank Clark and a possible extension for Tyreek Hill https://t.co/RdkabgJ7A0
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) March 7, 2022
