Orlando Brown Jr. Drama Just One More Major Question Facing the Kansas City Chiefs

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For the past several years, the Kansas City Chiefs have
reigned supreme in the AFC West. Dating back to 2016, they have won the
division six straight times. Each of the past four years have featured the
Chiefs hosting the AFC Championship Game, and two included trips to the Super
Bowl.

However, that run of dominance is in real jeopardy in 2022.
While the rest of the teams in the division spent the offseason adding impact
players at a dizzying pace, a lack of cap space prevented the Chiefs from
making any major moves.

In fact, the biggest move Kansas City made in the
offseason involved one of the team’s best players, Tyreek Hill, leaving town. And as
if major questions at wide receiver and defense weren’t bad enough, the team’s
best offensive lineman is unhappy about his contract situation and not expected
to report to training camp.

The key word for the 2022 Chiefs as camp opens is uncertainty—so
much uncertainty that Kansas City’s divisional dominance could be derailed.

That disgruntled offensive lineman is left tackle Orlando
Brown Jr., who the Chiefs acquired from the Baltimore Ravens via trade last
year. The Chiefs applied the franchise tag to Brown in March, and the July
15 deadline for the team to sign Brown to a long-term deal came and went
without an agreement.

Per Pete
Grathoff of the Kansas City Star, while appearing on NFL Now,
the NFL Network’s Jeffri Chadiha reported that the team wasn’t happy with
how negotiations with Brown unfolded.

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“There was frustration and there was disappointment. They
really like Orlando Brown Jr., they love having him be a part of this team, but
the money he was asking for was too high for them. They feel like they don’t
want to not have stability at left tackle here, but they also don’t want to pay
top-of-the-market money for a player that they don’t think is the best player
at his position in the NFL.

“One front office person said, ‘This isn’t the same
guy that we traded for.’ The feeling there is that when they got him from
Baltimore is that he was going to be a team player and work with them on a
team-friendly type of deal. That was not the case. Right now we’re looking at a
situation where Orlando Brown probably won’t be there for training camp and may
not be there for Week 1.”

While speaking
to reporters at OTAs, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes expressed optimism
that Brown would eventually re-join the team:

“I talk to Orlando all the time. Me and him have a
great relationship. Obviously, we wanted to get the
deal done. I’m sure he wanted to get the deal done, everything like that. But
at the end of the day, we’re gonna go out there and play football and I’m
excited for him to be here and be a part of the team again.”

Set Number: X163794 TK1

However, head coach Andy Reid admitted that Brown might not
be out there when Kansas City’s veteran players report July 26:

“I don’t know whether he’s going to be here or
not. If he’s here, great. And if he’s not, we move on.
That’s how we’ve done it in the past. This isn’t the first time I’ve been
through something like this. My thing is, we just go. Whoever the next guy is
that’s gonna step in there—we know Joe Thuney can do it in a heartbeat—so, if we need to go in that direction, we can go in that direction. We’ve got
some new faces in there that can also do it.”

That Reid would express a “next man up” philosophy
is understandable. And the reality is that Brown doesn’t have much in the way
of leverage—his options are to play in 2022 under the $16.7 million
franchise tag or sit out and forfeit almost $1 million for every game
missed.

But if Brown digs in and misses regular-season action, his
absence won’t be easily shrugged off. Thuney is a capable
veteran guard, but he’s just that—a guard. He hasn’t spent any real time at
tackle since college. Reserve tackle Geron Christian started eight games for
the Houston Texans in 2021, but he’s not close to the caliber of player Brown
is.

One of the Chiefs’ strengths is an offensive line that Pro
Football Focus ranked ninth in the league this year. But that’s with Brown
on the field. Remove him from the equation, and the line is average.

Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

It’s just one more potential issue for a team that
was already staring at a few.

While appearing on Good Morning Football last week,
Chiefs wideout Mecole Hardman said he thinks the team’s new-look receiving corps
will shine in 2022.

“[Losing] a guy like Tyreek [Hill] with a lot of targets, I
think it’s a lot of targets to go around,” he said, per Kevin
Patra of NFL.com. “Obviously, we’ve got a good group of guys,
receivers-wise, so it’s definitely going to be a good year to come up a little
bit and just have fun with it and just take advantage of the opportunity.”

But after trading Hill to the Miami
Dolphins, every wide receiver on Kansas City’s roster combined has exactly one 1,000-yard
season—JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2018. Last year, Smith-Schuster had just 15
catches over five games before he suffered a shoulder injury that ended his regular
season.

Fellow free-agent addition Marquez Valdes-Scantling has never had 40
catches or 700 receiving yards in a season. Hardman’s best season was last
year, when he caught 59 passes for 693 yards.

Yes, the Chiefs still have the NFL’s best tight end in Travis
Kelce. But until one of those wideouts shows he can be a
consistent threat, Kelce will receive all kinds of attention from
opposing defenses.

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The defense has issues as well. The Chiefs were 27th in
the league against the pass in 2021, allowing 251.4 yards per game. Kansas
City’s secondary lost cornerback Charvarius Ward and safety Tyrann Mathieu in
free agency, and while the team added replacements in Trent McDuffie and Justin
Reid, the former is a rookie and the latter is a clear downgrade from
Mathieu.

That revamped secondary will likely be tested with regularity in 2022—only
three teams logged fewer sacks in 2021 than the Chiefs.

What exacerbates these issues is that while the Chiefs
took a step back (on paper) this offseason, every other team in the AFC West leaped
forward.

The Raiders made big-time acquisitions on both sides of the ball,
signing edge-rusher Chandler Jones and trading for wide receiver Davante Adams.
The Los Angeles Chargers should be vastly improved on defense after adding
edge-rusher Khalil Mack and cornerback J.C. Jackson. The Denver Broncos made
the biggest splash of all, trading for quarterback Russell Wilson.

The gap between the Chiefs and the rest of the AFC West hasn’t
just shrunk. It has evaporated.

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Now, this doesn’t mean that the Chiefs are doomed. Teams
don’t win half a dozen consecutive division titles by accident, and any team
led by Mahomes will be dangerous.

But the days of the Chiefs being head-and-shoulders better than
everyone in the division appear to be over. Whether it’s the pass-catching
corps, the defensive backfield or potentially the offensive line, there’s
much more uncertainty in Kansas City in 2022.

And at some point, one of these problems will become one
problem too many.