Orlando Brown Jr.‘s quest to become a full-time left tackle led him to Kansas City, and the Chiefs will soon be forced to carve out a sizable portion of their cap space to ensure he stays.

Chiefs GM Brett Veach said the team using its franchise tag on Brown is “likely,” as the team plans to work toward a long-term extension with its left tackle, Herbie Teope of the Kansas City Star tweets. With all offensive line positions grouped together on the tag, Brown’s tag figure is expected to come in just below $17MM. Given the going rate for upper-echelon left tackles, that is not an especially steep price. Tagging Brown would give the Chiefs until mid-July to work out an extension.

[RELATED: Assessing Brown’s Offseason Value]

Having spent two-plus seasons as the Ravens’ right tackle, Brown maneuvered his way to the Chiefs after demanding to play on the left side — where he finished the 2020 season after Ronnie Stanley‘s first major injury. Last season, Brown made his third Pro Bowl and was a central figure in the Chiefs’ O-line overhaul. He will certainly push for an extension north of $20MM per year. Three left tackles — Trent Williams, David Bakhtiari and Laremy Tunsil, whose 2020 extension reshaped the position’s market — now earn more than $22MM annually.

Brown’s status clouds Tyrann Mathieu‘s. The Chiefs have been prepared to tag Brown since acquiring him last year, leaving their top secondary piece unsigned. The Chiefs have two more weeks of exclusive negotiating rights with the All-Pro safety before the legal tampering period begins. Veach plans to meet with Mathieu’s agent at the Combine, Aaron Wilson of ProFootballNetwork.com notes. It is far from a guarantee the three-time All-Pro stays in Kansas City.

Mathieu will turn 30 in May, but the nine-year veteran would still generate widespread interest on the open market. The Chiefs signed the versatile defender to a three-year, $42MM deal in March 2019, and he led the way in reshaping a then-bottom-tier defense. Given the deals handed out to Justin Simmons and Jamal Adams last year, Mathieu will be in good shape to score another monster payday soon. No active safety matches Mathieu’s three first-team All-Pro honors.

Sitting $11MM-plus under the cap, the Chiefs will need to continue to make moves to carve out space for a Brown tag and other moves. The team already released four-year linebacker starter Anthony Hitchens and can keep restructuring Patrick Mahomes‘ 10-year contract. The team created $17MM in cap space by restructuring Mahomes’ deal last year.

The 2021 season ended just short of a third consecutive trip to the Super Bowl for the Chiefs, beginning an offseason filled with important roster decisions. General manager Brett Veach‘s comments in a recent press conference highlighted the team’s likely priorities, which will be shaped to a large extent by a pair of pending free agents: safety Tyrann Mathieu and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. 

One day after the Chiefs’ overtime loss in the AFC title game, Mathieu posted a tweet which certainly points to him signing elsewhere in the offseason. “Lot to be proud of over the past 3 years”, it states. “I’m thankful and grateful. I leave with a grateful heart having got the chance to play for all you good people”.

Veach, however, was quick to downplay the high potential of the three-time All Pro departing. When asked if Mathieu’s stay in KC is over, he responded, “I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily true. That’s Tyrann just being his genuine self” (Twitter link via ESPN’s Adam Teicher). The 29-year-old recorded 13 interceptions in three seasons in Kansas City. His contract, which averages $14MM per year, expires in March.

When asked about Brown Jr., Veach stated that he expects the 25-year-old to be the team’s starting LT, tweets NFL Network’s James Palmer. He was traded from the Ravens last April, in a move that accommodated his request to play on the blindside – something that his late father always wanted for him. 2021 was the final year of his rookie contract, which carried a salary of just under $3.4MM. His 75.2 PFF grade this year didn’t live up to the potential he showed in Baltimore, but it should still be enough to command an extension making him one of the league’s highest paid tackles.

Overall, Veach stated that the defensive side of the ball is likely to be the organization’s first priority this offseason (Twitter link via Herbie Tope of the Kansas City Star). With very limited cap space and a few massive deals already on the books, though, any commitment to Mathieu and/or Brown Jr. would greatly reduce the team’s remaining options with regards to maintaining an elite roster.

Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt and GM Brett Veach have expressed a desire to extend Tyrann Mathieu. The All-Pro safety has shown interest in staying in Kansas City as well, but the Chiefs are not rushing to finalize a deal.

Citing this year’s $16MM cap reduction, Veach noted the Mathieu math is a bit more complicated than it otherwise would have been.

“We’ve had a chance to talk to Tyrann and his representation, and I think it’s a little bit difficult with the landscape right now of having two cap-shortened offseasons, and where we are in regards to our offseason projections,” Veach said during an appearance on Sirius XM Radio (via Pro Football Talk). “But as we’ve discussed with Tyrann and his crew, it’s one of those situations that where we are now will certainly not be where we are once the season ends. Once we correct some of the things when you have extensions, conversations, trades, [free agents who] move on — every team is certainly in a different position [with] what their books say than they will be in the offseason.

“We like to think that we’re going to find a way to get this done, and he knows we love him and we know he wants to be here. And right now for us and for him, I think it’s just a timing thing.”

The Chiefs are projected to be a middle-of-the-pack team in terms of cap space in 2022, though that is a ways off, but this equation does not yet include Orlando Brown Jr. The Chiefs are tabling negotiations with their new left tackle until the offseason, but Veach said he has factored a Brown franchise tag into his 2022 numbers.

“Right now we’re counting Orlando on a tag, but we think he’s going to play well, and we’re going to extend him, and that opens up space,” Veach said, via ESPN.com’s Adam Teicher.

Veach and Co. have managed their books quite well in recent years, signing Patrick Mahomes to a record-setting extension that is still somehow team-friendly while also extending Chris Jones and Travis Kelce. The Chiefs, however, finalized these deals in the summer of 2020, when the cap’s status featured greater uncertainty. The cap is expected to rise toward $210MM in 2022.

Both Mathieu and Brown are going into contract years. Each will seek top-market money, and the team can obviously only tag one of them. The offensive line tag came in at just $13.8MM this year. The number will rise in 2022. Mathieu’s safety tag would be higher than the league-determined figure at the position, due to the 120% rule that comes into play when teams tag players they previously signed to big-ticket deals. Mathieu’s 2022 tag figure would be $17.46MM — 120% of his $14.55MM 2021 base salary.

While Brown has not proven a fit just yet, Mathieu has been vital to the Chiefs’ back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. The 29-year-old defender has earned first-team All-Pro acclaim in each of his two Chiefs seasons. He is set to finish out a three-year, $42MM pact this season. Mathieu and Landon Collins‘ $14MM-per-year deals topped the safety market in 2019, but Jamal Adams has since raised the bar to $17.5MM annually. Adams’ deal stands to impact the Chiefs soon.