It’s Not All Bad for the Kansas City Chiefs and LT Orlando Brown Jr.

From the time the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs traded for left deal with Orlando Brown Jr. till the second it was reported that each side didn’t agree on a contract extension, the optimism surrounding these extension talks appeared to observe an attention-grabbing arc from a majority perspective.

Final April, it was anticipated by many who Brown would play out his first season in Kansas Metropolis after which ink a long-term contract instantly thereafter. Following the top of the season and a few early-offseason strikes, hopes had been nonetheless excessive {that a} deal would get completed in due time. Even up till the final couple of weeks earlier than the July 15 deadline, there wasn’t an amazing sentiment that the 2 camps would finish in a stalemate. 

That stalemate ended up being the case, though it is not the top of the world for both facet. There isn’t a unhealthy man on this state of affairs. 

Per Nate Taylor of The Athletic, the Chiefs’ closing provide to Brown was a six-year pact for $139 million. That deal, by common annual worth requirements, would have surpassed that of each San Francisco 49ers left deal with Trent Williams and David Bakhtiari of the Inexperienced Bay Packers (making $23.01M and $23M per yr, respectively). The provide additionally contained the very best signing bonus for a left deal with ever. 

On the floor, it gave the impression to be just like the contract Brown wished and maybe higher than anybody on the surface anticipated. He’d be the highest-paid left deal with within the NFL, in any case, so why did not he dash to the workplace suites at Arrowhead Stadium to place pen to paper and ink the contract?

The construction of the provide, to the dismay of Brown’s agent Michael Portner, was nowhere close to what Brown’s camp was in search of in fact.

The primary 5 years of Brown’s contract provide (per Taylor) featured simply $91M over the primary 5 years with simply two of them being totally assured. An $18.2M-per-year common is a far cry from a high left deal with common, however slightly a determine that falls simply outdoors the highest 5 when it comes to AAV. That, together with the shortage of safety over the course of the deal, wasn’t almost sufficient for Brown and Portner to chew. 

Trendy NFL contracts oftentimes characteristic “ego years,” to take a web page from fellow Arrowhead Report analyst Conner Christopherson’s e-book, to inflate the overall worth of the deal for highest-paid and optics functions. Even with that and the gargantuan signing bonus in place for Brown, it wasn’t sufficient. That closing yr of the contract virtually absolutely would not have been reached, thus making the deal as a complete a lot much less interesting to the recipient. For Brown, a participant wanting a true top-of-the-market provide, he was proper to stroll away from it. He is a younger, ascending left deal with who should not be shunned for chasing a hefty payday.

On the Chiefs’ facet of issues, they had been additionally proper to not give Brown the world. Regardless of giving up a large quantity of draft capital for him within the first place and having the positional significance connected to negotiations, that they had loads of leverage working of their favor. Whereas Brown was strong in his first yr as a Chief, he was precisely simply that. A mean to above-average left deal with should not command the most important payday within the historical past of his place, particularly when he hasn’t confirmed that he is worthy of it. By structuring their provide how they did, Kansas Metropolis’s actions confirmed precisely how the franchise feels about Brown and his standing among the many league’s elite at this cut-off date. 

Below the franchise tag, Brown is slated to make slightly below $16.7M this yr. That is an enormous elevate from the $3.38M he made a season in the past, so he is not fully left with out some kind of pay improve. Subsequent yr, when the Chiefs have the power to tag him but once more, he’d be projected to make slightly below $18M. However, he additionally has the power to show himself proper and the Chiefs incorrect this yr by elevating his sport to new heights and displaying why he is deserving of such a large contract extension. The 2 sides can choose up negotiations once more after the season and easily should get to that time in a single piece for the whole lot to be again on the desk.

The Chiefs and Brown got here into negotiations with a typical objective in thoughts: attain an settlement on a long-term deal that may make Brown the blindside protector of Patrick Mahomes for the following half-decade or longer. That finish objective did not get completed, nevertheless it’s not all doom and gloom for both facet of the contract teeter-totter. 

Brown and Portner dug their heels in as a result of underwhelming construction of the Chiefs’ provide, and the Chiefs primarily took benefit of the speedy choices that they had whereas primarily telling Brown to go present them why they need to change their minds subsequent yr. There’s nothing incorrect with that, and there does not have to be a long-term deal in place proper now. An answer can nonetheless be had, though that end result will probably be decided months into the longer term. If there’s one factor these two sides have proven, although, it is that they are prepared to attend.