The Chiefs and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. were unable to agree to an extension prior to the July 15 deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign multi-year deals. That development has reportedly led to Kansas City becoming frustrated with its 2021 trade acquisition.
“There was frustration and there was disappointment,” Jeffri Chadiha of the NFL Network recently said (via Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star). “They really like Orlando Brown Jr., they love having him be a part of this team, but the money he was asking for was too high for them. They feel like they don’t want to not have stability at left tackle here, but they also don’t want to pay top-of-the-market money for a player that they don’t think is the best player at his position in the NFL.”
Of course, the frustration is probably mutual. While the Chiefs proposed a six-year, $139MM contract, that featured a bloated $40MM salary in the sixth and final year of the deal that was never intended to be paid and was only included to give Brown a market-topping average annual value of over $23MM. The AAV over the first five years was around $18MM, which would have stood eighth among tackles.
On the other hand, as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes, the Chiefs’ offer did include $38MM in full guarantees and another $14.25MM in injury guarantees (which would have converted to a full guarantee in 2024). That $38MM mark is critical because it represents more than what Brown would earn under two consecutive franchise tags — $16.7MM in 2022 and $19.9MM in 2023 — and that is often a key to working out an extension for tagged players.
Brown, though, was pushing for a $40MM signing bonus and full guarantees beyond that, along with a “true” AAV of $25MM. It is easy to see why the Chiefs did not want to go there for a very good player who can dominate lesser defenders but who can look more pedestrian against quality competition. Though he excels at run-blocking thanks largely to his mauling style of play, his pass-block win rate in 2021 — his first full year on the blindside — was outside the top-40 at his position. That is especially concerning since, in the Chiefs’ high-flying offense, he is generally not asked to sustain blocks for very long.
There is certainly a chance that Brown, 26, will continue to improve, and even if he is hit with the franchise tag again in 2023, he will have the chance to finally hit the open market the following year, when he is just 28 years old. At that time, the salary cap is expected to be considerably higher than it is now, so as long as he can avoid a major injury and at least sustain his current level of performance, Brown’s patience could be rewarded in a big way.
For now, it is unclear if he will report to training camp, which opens later this week. Head coach Andy Reid, during a press conference on Friday, said, “I don’t know that. So I don’t know whether he’s going to be here or not. If he’s here, great. And if he’s not, we move on. That’s how we’ve done it in the past. This isn’t the first time I’ve been through something like this” (via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk).
Brown will almost certainly sign his tender at some point, though Chadiha did indicate that the three-time Pro Bowler may be willing to extend his holdout into Week 1.
Per Chadiha, “one front office person said, ‘[t]his isn’t the same guy that we traded for.’ The feeling there is that when they got him from Baltimore is that he was going to be a team player and work with them on a team-friendly type of deal. That was not the case. Right now we’re looking at a situation where Orlando Brown probably won’t be there for training camp and may not be there for Week 1.”
He is greedy and wants to get paid like the best LT in football when he may be too 10. He isn’t even close to being the top LT in the NFL.
True, Andy Reid and Brett Veach are no dummies.
But they traded a first rounder for him
Well there is a huge difference between a 1st rounder and being the top LT in all of the NFL. So what is your point?
so let me get this straight,
they handcuffed him with the franchise tag, and now they don’t want to pay him it?
I call Mr Brown a smart businessman.. regardless of his value, Chiefs must pay him to protect their previous Patty
The franchises him and will put the franchise & if he shows up to camp.
They traded with the hope of signing him long term. She not a good business man if he doesn’t understand his value.
Only owners are allowed to be greedy. This guy should work for free for the privilege of destroying his body for a team who will cut him as soon as he’s not productive
Yeah, because there’s no middle ground to be had here. Ridiculous.
He’s not the best LT and he’s probably not one of the top five best LT’s. If he wants to roll the dice and bet on himself, good for him. If he wants to hold out and further alienate himself from his teammates and his bosses, so be it.
Byeeeee!!!
So what?
He doesn’t want to sign a long term deal unless it makes more sense than going year to year and nothing KC has offered is any better than the tag.
Why in the world wouldn’t he wait until the spike in the cap?
You guys are confused about NFL contracts if you think their offers make sense for him. He really just has to think he can stay healthy for 2 years in order to increase his income by 20-50%.
it will be Chiefs who roll the dice if they let him walk ..
even if he’s top-20, good luck landing a top 19 LT
Shame he was insulted with such a lowball deal. How on earth will he ever survive on the guaranteed portion of the offer? GTFOH
Did the player spend billions of dollars to by the team, spend billions every year to run it, and be liable for the whole franchise if anything bad happens?
No owners, no teams. No teams, no players….and on down the line.
Guess what? You don’t HAVE to play football. If you don’t like the abuse you put yourself through or the pay for doing so, go do something else with that college education…………that most of them didn’t actually get.
What are you talking about? The player exercising their ability and right to negotiate a contract and play where they want and who they want to play for is a problem? I don’t understand your argument at all. He can choose to sign or not. It has nothing to do with what you’re talking about. Also your hierarchy of how with no owners there’s no team etc can easily be flipped on its head so….
No it can’t. If you had a bunch of players hanging around with no team owners, that’s all they’d be. Just a bunch of guys. There would be no huge franchises, no big stadiums, no big contracts. Where do you think that would all come from, out of the thing blue sky?
Yah 20 million a year is free. Your not so smart are you?
I’m not smart, I am brilliant.
He should just work for free and really take care of the Chiefs’ owner because he’d definitely take care of him for the rest of his life if he gets injured. It’s not like it’s one of the most important positions on the field of a wildly, violent game
It’s not about not taking care of him. It’s about not getting raped by a player who has overvalued himself dramatically. Sorry you can’t understand that.
What a terrible analogy. Comparing a player wanting to be paid what he believes he should get paid to rape. The Chiefs are the idiots here for trading for a player without having a contract agreement in place. 100% on the organization, not the player.
Right. Because teams ALWAYS, 100% of the time, have a long-term contract extension in place prior to making a trade. Come on man.
If a team takes a chance to make the trade the chiefs chose to make without a contract extension in place, they put themselves in this sort of position! That’s the point! He knows what they gave up to get him. You think that fact gives the chiefs more leverage in negotiations? The team chose to trade for him without a contract in place. It is on them. Hope he gets everything he can.
What they gave up to get him a year ago is sunk at this point. Has little to do with negotiations going forward. Cheifs knew/know that. Also the Chiefs didn’t give up a 1st rd pick alone. It was the 31st, 94th and change for the 58th and OB.
A man who uses the word rape for an employee choosing not to sign a long term under market deal really shouldn’t even use the word understand.
his value is related to keeping Mahomes healthy, so he’s rightfully very, very valuable at the moment
His choice of professions. No one forces any of the guys to play in the NFL and risk there health. McDonald’s is always hiring I hear. Let him find a real job then
He’s not the one crying is he?
You make zero sense.
He should, because without the team owner he wouldn’t have a job at all.
If he holds out til week 1 he only hurts himself. He won’t be a top shape and will be ripe for injury- The last thing he needs.
Hell sign with the falcons next offseason
1. Pull the contract offer from him.
2. Tag him next year too.
3. Draft the best available LT next year and sign a veteran LT to a one year deal.
4. Count your blessings that you stood up to this greedy punk who doesn’t deserve what he’s asking for.
Hey Bruce Allen…
That is a lot of time, effort, energy, and vengeance to spend on one player. The rest of the team will see it and your organization will crumble from within. Didn’t you learn anything from the likes of Kirk Cousins, Trent Williams, and Brandon Scherff?
How about if the Chiefs front office was to take the high road and rip a page out of the Ozzie Newsome playbook. The offer is on the table, and you are free to test the market.
You don’t think players try harder when an owner punishes one of them for asking for too much money? 🙂
Never once has a front office or coaching staff taken a ‘home town discount.’. Only the players are asked that favor.
Its not about him taking a hometown discount. Its the fact he wants to be paid like a top player at his position when he isn’t one.
when they gave him the “Franchise” tag they handcuffed him from the open market
he is well within his right to force their hand
Not sure that applies here. He wants top dollar and he just isn’t in that tier.
As other’s are saying, there is a buttload of middle ground here. Saying he doesn’t deserve Top 5 LT money is not saying he sucks balls and should kick rocks.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, just like him. Brown thinks better of himself than the team does. Happens every year. If he walks next offseason, there will be a team that’ll pay him.
Yes, there will be a team that pays him. But they won’t him more than every other LT in the league. No team is that stupid.
We’ll see. The WR market jumped by multi-millions this offseason. Why not the tackle position next year? And yes, there are very poorly run teams that will bring him in.
Once QBs get $40MM per year you can expect a domino effect affecting every position.
Why should owners expect “team friendly” discounts? They aren’t offering any “fan friendly” discounts when they charge $20 for a hot dog and beer.
Thank you! Clark Hunt isn’t taking a financial hit. He’s making more than ever w/ a potential HoF QB on his roster, in his prime.
How crazy that an owner would own a business and expect to make money.
Same for his/her employees. What’s the difference besides the zero’s? Have you ever declined a raise?
KC didn’t trade for Brown to run their salary cap or finances. They wanted a LT. There’s a cost with that.
link to larrybrownsports.com
Sunday Ticket is going for $1.5B annually. But Brown should be a ‘team player”? Ha!
I think the only crazy thing here is a fan being so angry about a player having the nerve to ask for more money than you think he’s worth if they want him to sign a long term deal.
That’s because you pay it. Stop paying $20 for a beer. They’ll stop charging it.
Same premise applies to free agent left tackles
I haven’t been to a game in 4-5 years. For that exact reason. Food & drink, nosebleed tickets, & parking; you’re looking at a $150+ for 4 hours of entertainment? I’d rather watch the games from my home.
And if you stop watching on TV, the league will fold and the problem is solved. Stop supporting these spoiled, rich, entitled athletes. They do not deserve your idolization.
You think the league will fold if I stop watching? Heck you won’t even do that. You’re reading and commenting on a pro football sports site.
Reading and commenting on a site that doesn’t pay the NFL a dime is not WATCHING football on TV or going to the stadium.
If I want to reach out to a bunch of fans and convince them that it would be better to stop being one, where better to do it?
So your goal is to bash football on football sites, but not watch football? Get a life! But, maybe, the NFL will fold because you turned them off? Thanks for the joke!
Yes. I will bash all major league sports in whatever forum/way I can. I have a life, that’s why I don’t need the major sports leagues.
Indeed, if I, and numerous other people that already left, combined with more, the league will eventually fold. They depend upon a large fanbase.
This is why halfway through the season the NFL stopped their woke nonsense last year because people weren’t coming to or watching the games. This is why the Baltimore Ravens took out full paid ads and had their beat writers writing pleas to the fanbase to come back to the stadium.
The only joke is you and the Lamar Lackeys.
Shh – I guess not everyone knows the cap is about to jump.
A team desperate for a LT & able to pick one up for cap space alone is all most always willing to overpay and should be.
The benefit of being able to pay so many young players a minimum contract is that you can sometimes overpay.
Hopefully you’re just as mad when the team underpays.
I will be glad when players get paid what they deserve for a kid’s game. Next to nothing. It is absolutely disgusting what they get paid, so I would prefer if they didn’t get paid and there was no NFL. The NFL has done nothing for me, so likewise, I won’t do anything for it.
Why are you here talking to fans?
And ‘mythical one’ always has posts here. This is not his first article he’s read & commented on.
Oh, heaven forbid I share my opinions on a chat forum…..you know, the best place to voice my displeasure to a wide audience…..
Of course I wouldn’t expect certain denizens to be able to think on multi-levels, so I understand your lack of getting it.
Because I can. I can still be here and not support the NFL or any of its teams or players. And I can reach out to people like you and have my day brightened with your cheery disposition….
Let him sit out if he wants. Put someone else in and move on. When he wants to play he will. Currently if he comes back at less pay he will only play at half speed so you might as well play someone who wants to be there.
This is why Baltimore traded him. Really good player but kind of a headache to have.
They traded him because he wanted to play LT so that he could get paid and Baltimore already has a massive contract with Stanley that looks worse and worse every day.
I’m aware, Baltimore wasn’t very pressed about keeping him around no matter what he wanted.
No, they traded him because he said he would ONLY play LT. It wasn’t just a simple request. He forced a trade. There was no way even if they let him play LT that they were going to pay him and another player star LT money, figuring they still have other players to sign, like Lamar; which I hope they don’t spend that money on him. But, not my money, so I don’t really care what they do anymore.
I agree that the contract with Stanley looks bad. Hopefully he can come back and be good again, but that ankle has been worked on more times than a used Yugo at this point. I can’t see it ending well.
Baltimore saw this headache coming and decided to be done with it and got a very nice haul for Brown. Now he’s another team’s problem.
The sense of entitlement of seemingly every good-to-great player thinking they deserve to be the highest paid player at their position is just comical.
That being said, if he hits the open market someone will be desperate and give it to him.
NFL needs to just ditch the tag. Only creates drama. Play out your contract and go have fun playing for a bottom feeder if money is priority #1, 2, and 3 for ya.
Can’t believe you typed those first 2 sentences, read them in sequence, and then proceeded to hit send
Highlighting the two way street of why contracts spiral out of control is the premise you’re mocking here. I can’t believe you hit send on a reply that didn’t acknowledge that fact.
I can’t believe you read those two sentences and came to the conclusion you did. Maybe it’s a little too early?
It was the phrase “sense of entitlement” that didn’t sit well with me. I apologize though, you’re right my comment was unnecessary and came off douchey
Don’t sweat it. We all come off douchey sometimes.
Unlike the vast majority of people, you however, have the balls to own something like that. Tip of the hat to you brother.
I have a solution for all of you that are getting tired of the ridiculous amounts of money, money in one year that is more than most families will ever see in generations, to play a game. It would be one thing if they were also models of society and actually had some level of respect for the people that helped them get so rich, the fans. You see, without the huge fan base in general, there is no huge contract.
They get these contracts because so many eyes are on the sport they play that advertisers want to pay big money to get their ads seen by those eyes. Networks want a piece of that prize, so they pay huge money for broadcasting rights to the games so that all the eyes need to tune in, and then also watch those ads.
Stop going to the games and stop watching them. No fans, no money. No money, no contracts. No contracts, no players. No players, no games. No games, no league. They don’t care about you, why should you care about them any longer?
They offered him a very fair contract and he chose to turn it down. That is of course his choice. I understand the Chiefs frustration though. Their offer wasn’t lowballing him. It was top 10 OT money for a guy who isn’t the a top 5 OT.
Pay him or don’t pay him.
But the whole “we only got him because we thought he was a chump and he’d play cheap” thing…
Their offer wasn’t “cheap.” It isn’t like they offered him $6.25/game (for an hour) and a hamburger for lunch. They offered him 10’s of millions of dollars…and people think that’s being cheap. Talk about being disconnected from reality.