Chiefs’ Branden Albert To Sign Franchise Tender

Michael Hickey-USA TODAY Sports

According to USA Today, Kansas City Chiefs LT Branden Albert will sign the franchise tender the team offered him for the 2013 season.

This means Albert is guaranteed to make over $9 million in 2013.

Albert signing now means we are unlikely to see him sit out training camp like WR Dwayne Bowe did last season. Bowe waited to sign his franchise tender and because he was not under contract, he could not be fined for missing required practices.

The Chiefs and Albert can still work out a long-term deal. They have until July 15th to sign Albert to another deal. If the two sides can’t come together by then, Albert will have to play the 2013 season under the franchise tag.

Now that Albert has signed, he can also be traded. Any team trading for Albert would want a guarantee that he will renegotiate his deal. Otherwise, the trading team would be taking a gamble on a play that it might only be able to retain for one year.

Funny enough, SI.com’s Peter King reported earlier today that the Chiefs would listen to any team interested in trading for Albert. The timing of Albert’s signing his tender could be a coincidence but I can’t help but wonder if a trade is in the works.

If the Chiefs did have a deal on the table and the team offering the deal was a team Albert wanted to play for, Albert would need to sign his contract with the Chiefs before being dealt.

Or Albert may just want to get signing his tender out of the way.

What do you think?