Orlando Brown Jr. declining offer is net positive for K.C. Chiefs

Orlando Brown Jr. gave up all of his leverage by declining the Chiefs’ six-year offer.

The only leverage that Brown has left over the Chiefs is his ability to opt out of the 2022 season. If you step back from the microscope, however, this deal not finalizing immediately positions Brown in the most pivotal season of his career. If he is to underperform, and, say, miss the Pro Bowl in 2022, the offer goes down. The same is true if he’s injured.

Brown’s camp—made of a 26-year-old agent who has never represented an athlete before—declined the Chiefs’ offer because of a “lack of security” on the back-end of the deal. Newsflash: Long-term guaranteed money is reserved, exclusively, for generational talents, and deals greater than five years are incredibly rare in a league that features players with an average tenure of three years. 

Brown is neither generational nor invincible. He is really good at his job, and he deserves to be paid for his ability and consistency. He does not, however, have any power to demand resetting the left tackle market, and he’s not done anything to earn security beyond his age 32 season, which the Chiefs were willing to pay him through. Brown will have to play on the Chiefs’ franchise tag this season if he wishes to even sniff the money he’s asked for in next year’s negotiation, and he will have to play damn well.

Additionally, as previously mentioned, Brown is under the Chiefs’ control through 2024. It’s a sticky situation for a fringe top-10 player like himself to be in, but there’s not much he can do other than play to prove his worth while on the franchise tag. The Chiefs can save money by tagging him again in 2023 when considering the money he is asking for, and they will hold all the power, which included the option to trade him should they find more value in parting ways with him.

Brown’s decision to decline the Chiefs‘ offer to lock him up as Patrick Mahomes’ left tackle, in an Andy Reid offense, for the next half-decade will more likely haunt his dreams than it will affect anybody else’s sleep whatsoever.