Every spring, NFL teams look to manage roster building with cap space a month and a half before the NFL draft. Contracts expire, and their best assets head into free agency. Players can sign new contracts with their current teams before free agency, giving them an advantage. Still, for those players who won’t see a big payday where they’ve been playing, NFL free agency marks an opportunity to sign with the highest bidder.
That’s what awaits former Oklahoma Sooners tackle Orlando Brown of the Kansas City Chiefs. Brown will enter free agency for the first time in his young career with a chance to make a significant payday.
Kansas City has a little more than $11 million in cap space and has plenty of room to work with to get a long-term deal done with their starting left tackle. And they can create even more with restructures of current contracts or releases that can create even more cap space for their team-building efforts in 2022.
With the calendar turned to March, NFL free agency opens in two weeks, and if the Chiefs don’t plan to re-sign Brown, he’ll be one of the hottest targets on the market.
Our friends Mark Schofield and Doug Farrar over at the Touchdown Wire ranked the top 60 free agents heading into the NFL’s annual spending spree, and the former Sooner comes in at No. 8.
In the wake of Super Bowl LV, where the Kansas City Chiefs failed to protect Patrick Mahomes from the ferocious pass rush of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kansas City set out last off-season with a singular goal: Rebuild their offensive line. By the time Week 1o of the 2021 campaign rolled around, the Chiefs had five new faces up front, including left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., acquired via trade from the Baltimore Ravens. Brown helped solidify the Chiefs’ pass protection, allowing four sacks and 12 quarterback hits during the regular season according to charting data from Pro Football Focus. While these numbers represent an increase over his production during his time in Baltimore, they also reflect the quarterback Brown was acquired to protect. – Schofield and Farrar, Touchdown Wire
According to Pro Football Focus, among 51 tackles with at least 675 snaps on the season, Brown was the 22nd highest-graded offensive lineman. He was 21st in pass-blocking efficiency. But as Schofield and Farrar point out, that’s not all on him.
According to charting data from Pro Football Focus, Mahomes was third in the league in “Allowed Pressures,” plays where the quarterback contributed to the pressure he faced in the pocket. – Schofield and Farrar, Touchdown Wire
As great as Patrick Mahomes is, if there’s one flaw, it’s he holds onto the ball too long. Super Bowl LVI is the evidence. On the Chiefs’ final drive, Mahomes played with fire every time he dropped back to pass.
Orlando Brown will get paid this offseason by the Chiefs or someone else. He’s an experienced tackle who’s played more than 1,100 snaps in each of the last three seasons. And he plays a premier position at left tackle. Brown is also the only tackle to make the Pro Bowl in each of the previous three seasons. That’s consistency.
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