The Kansas City Chiefs applied the franchise tag to left tackle Orland Brown Jr. on Monday in what was an unsurprising move.

Brown's tag was the first of the day. Since then, the Browns tagged tight end David Njoku and the Bengals tagged Jesse Bates III.

So, what does it mean for the Chiefs? Let's dive in and find out.

The tag isn't set in stone…yet

One reason teams tag players is so they can try to work out a long-term deal before a deadline makes the tag official. This year, it's July 15. Therefore, the Chiefs still have a shot at removing the tag and signing Brown to a long-term deal.

We'll see if it that happens, though.

The Chiefs don't have any cap room after placing the tag on Brown

Per Overthecap.com, it will now cost the Chiefs $16.698 million to roster Brown in 2022. That's if they don't work out a long-term deal, of course.

The problem with the tag is Brown's salary comes straight off the books. There is no manipulating the cap hit in favor of lowering the overall impact. Therefore, as it stands, the Chiefs are currently a little more than $8 million over the cap when it comes to effective cap space. This is after they saved $8 million by releasing Anthony Hitchens a few weeks ago.

Therefore, the Chiefs are going to have make some moves to get back under the cap

It looks like Frank Clark and his $26.3 million cap hit is gone, at this point. Kansas City stands to save $12.7 million by releasing or trading him. It's likely the Chiefs will feel comfortable with either route since the 2022 draft class has plenty of enticing EDGE prospects.

The obvious restructure candidate is Patrick Mahomes. They can take his $27.4 million roster bonus, turn it into a signing bonus, and then spread that amount over the remaining 10 years of his deal, which would drop his cap hit from nearly $36 million to around $11.1 million. This saves/creates nearly $25 million in cap room and the move alone would put the Chiefs around $15-16 million under the cap.

The Chiefs could also extend Tyreek Hill, who is in the last year of his contract.

Overall, there are enough plausible options for the Chiefs to figure something out.

Final word

When it's all said and done, the Chiefs aren't going to be affected from tagging Brown. Mahomes' contract is a huge part of the equation, but that's the bonus part of signing a player to a 10-year deal just three years into a rookie deal.

There's a chance they lose Tyrann Mathieu, but that could be more a result of his market, than anything. Still, the Chiefs could sign Mathieu to a long-term deal and manipulate the numbers on the front end to work in their favor.

They still have to make decisions on Melvin Ingram, Charvarius Ward, and Mike Hilton, to name a few, as well. It will be interesting to see how the Chiefs approach the rest of the offseason.

But no matter how you slice it, Brown's tag is just the first domino to fall for the Chiefs this offseason.

Featured image via-Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports