USAT: Chiefs Wire audio clip

USAT: Chiefs Wire

Feb 22, 2022

The NFL’s franchise tag and transition tag window officially opens on Tuesday, Feb. 22 and closes on Tuesday, March 8. Unlike last season, the Kansas City Chiefs are likely to use the franchise tag this season. - The team didn’t use the franchise tag in 2021 and that marked the first time they hadn’t since 2018. In 2019, the Chiefs franchise tagged Dee Ford before trading him to the San Francisco 49ers. In 2020, the team had a clear-cut use for the franchise tag, using it on Chris Jones before eventually signing him to a long-term contract extension. This offseason, the team has a very clear use for the franchise tag yet again. - After trading to acquire LT Orlando Brown Jr. last April, the Chiefs are committed to him as their blindside protector. Even directly after the trade, there were reports that Kansas City was willing to use the franchise tag on Brown in 2022. That stance hasn’t changed after a year of him starting, if anything it strengthened the team’s thoughts. - Speaking to the media in the days following the loss in the AFC title game, Chiefs GM Brett Veach spoke about the situation with Brown. He didn’t seem to have a good feel for whether the left tackle would play on the franchise tag or a long-term extension in 2022, but was hopeful for the latter. - “Those are always unknown. I think that when you have a player come in here and when he loves being here, and I think when the coaching staff and the personnel staff feel the same way, it’s always easier to get something done when players see a place like Kansas City as a long-term place for them to potentially start and finish their career. So, when you get a guy like that, the trade happens and I think everything he wanted from this experience in regard to playing left tackle, playing in Kansas City, playing with Pat Mahomes, I haven’t asked him this directly, but I would say it’s been exactly what he’s wanted. I think we’ve been looking for a tough, rugged, dependable left tackle protecting Pat Mahomes. So, I think when you have that scenario play out where the player loves the team and the team loves the player, I think things are always more likely to work out. That element will be something that we iron out. It’d be beneficial for us because it allows us to do more things. I think many good teams are in the same scenario. We’re okay. We’re not rolling into the offseason with a ton of cap space. We have some moves to make. The cap has grown. I know that there’s number thrown out there and people think that it’s a bigger number, but I think we were hoping for a little bit bigger. The big question is the growth from ’22 to ’23. That also plays a factor into how we structure contracts and how cash flow is different in years. There’s an element of that that’s unknown. The knee jerk reaction is to see TV deals and say the cap’s just going to balloon. We can continue to hope for that. It’s a good reality that that won’t happen. It’ll be much more gradual increase in the cap. So, those are some of the things as we work through the next few weeks trying to acquire as much information as we can. It’ll help guide us in what we do, but I’d love to sit here and say the cap is going to balloon to an astronomical number in ’23 and do all these things, but my gut tells me that won’t be the case. It’ll be much more gradual, and we’ll have to also utilize that into our equation in how we approach this offseason.” - If Veach and Brown’s representation are unable to agree on a long-term contract extension, they’ll apply the franchise tag (projected at $16.5 million for offensive linemen). That will buy them some time to reach an agreement on an extension ahead of the deadline to sign franchise-tagged players. If they’re unable to do that, Brown will play out the year on the franchise tag and they’ll try again in 2023. - - List - - Looking at Chiefs' potential free agent options at safety - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Chiefs Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Chiefs Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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