By Justin Jefferson
With the new league year set to begin on March 15th, that means many teams will lose key players to free agency. The Kansas City Chiefs are no exception. With offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr’s contract expired, there are three possible options: the franchise tag, a long-term extension, or free agency.
A franchise tag is essentially a one-year contract in that a team offers a player the average of the five largest salaries for a player at their given position. Currently, the franchise tag for an offensive tackle is $18.2 million. After placing a franchise tag on Brown for 2022, the Chiefs opted not to use this option for this year. If Brown and the Chiefs can’t work out a long-term deal by next week, Brown will officially be a free agent, which means he can sign with any team he chooses.
Source: The #Chiefs are not tagging OT Orlando Brown.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 6, 2023
Brown is one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL so it will be interesting to see if the Chiefs are able to offer him a long-term contract in the coming days. He was their most consistent offensive lineman this season, only allowing four total sacks on 722 pass-block snaps in the regular season. If any team is looking to improve their offensive line, he will be on many teams’ radars.
However, this was not the only move the team made today. It was announced the Chiefs would cut pass rusher Frank Clark from the team after Clark and the front office could not come to an agreement on a contract extension.
Clark is third all-time in most postseason sacks with 13.5. By releasing him, the Chiefs clear $21 million in salary cap space.
Chiefs and Frank Clark’s agent Erik Burkhardt were unable to find common ground on a reworked deal during several conversations at the combine and the expectation now is that Kansas City will release the 29-year-old DE who is the NFL’s third all-time leading postseason sack… https://t.co/IqjwATIWSt
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 6, 2023
