Orlando Brown Jr. is headed toward certain extension with KC Chiefs
By Josh Fann
Why Keep Him?
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Orlando Brown had a pretty good year in 2021. He had his early struggles when adjusting to a brand new scheme on a brand new team but a lot of people seem to unfairly judge Brown based on his early hiccups when in all reality he settled in quite nicely. As the season went on he didn’t let Mahomes’ deep drop-backs affect him too much and started playing more comfortable, putting people in the ground more. Left tackle play just gets held under a microscope so Brown’s lowlights resonate more in the minds of fans more than other players.
It would also be really bad resource management to give up all those picks for Brown only to let him go and then have to spend more big assets on another left tackle. If Brown goes, left tackle immediately becomes the No. 1 need and in an offseason where you already have a lot of needs it is just irresponsible. Furthermore, it’s not like Brown was so bad that you just have no choice to move on. He played admirably in year one with the Chiefs.
Brown is also still really young and could improve even more as he matures and could maybe even make things easier for himself by shedding some weight by training camp. Overall, Brown has a bright future and the Chiefs don’t have a ton of options if they fro some reason decided to let him walk.
Why let him go?
We don’t know where Brown’s head is at when it comes to contract demands, but if he wants to be paid like a top left tackle, like really expensive, then I could see some second thoughts going through the heads of important people in the organization. I think Brown is a piece for the future but he isn’t quite a top left tackle yet. Speed rushers seem to have an easier time getting around him but that’s something he can still get better at.
The one other reason the Chiefs could let him walk is a scenario where someone they really like is attainable or available in the draft or somewhere around the league. Maybe? Otherwise, there’s not much to discuss here.