KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs placed a non-exclusive franchise tag on left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. in hopes of signing him to a long-term deal.

Each of the 32 teams in the league are given the opportunity to “tag” one player who would otherwise be headed to the free agency market.

There are two types of franchise tags: exclusive and non-exclusive.

The key difference is in their respective names. An exclusive tag means that if a player does not sign the one-year contract, they cannot sign with another team that season and will not play. A non-exclusive tag allows the player to negotiate terms with any other club, but gives the club who tagged him the right of first refusal.

The non-exclusive player would present the offer received from another team to his current club, which would then decide to match it or let him go.

If the player leaves, the team who loses the tagged player is entitled to two compensatory first-round draft picks.

Franchise tender refers to how much the one-year deal will be worth. It is decided using the greater value of the following:

• The top 5 cap hits at the player’s position in the league, or
• 120% of the player’s salary the previous season.

In the case of Brown, the franchise tender will be about $16.6 million, according to Spotrac.

The terms of the franchise designation is agreed upon by the league and players association in the collective bargaining agreement.

Brown joined Kansas City in the 2021 offseason in a trade from the Baltimore Ravens with one year left on his rookie contract.

The tag will give the Chiefs time to iron out the details of a long-term contract to keep Brown in Kansas City for the future and, hopefully, help them free up some cap room as they continue to build the roster ahead of the 2022 season.

The Chiefs will look to restructure and extend other players and move money around to create more cap room.