NFL Free agency: Orlando Brown signs four-year, $64 million deal with Cincinnati Bengals

There might not be a better way to follow up a Super Bowl ring than a fresh contract. That’s exactly what offensive tackle Orlando Brown is doing, signing with the Cincinnati Bengals, according to Tom Pelissero. The contract is a four-year, $64.092 million front-loaded deal with the Bengals that includes an over $31M signing bonus, the largest ever for an offensive lineman, per the report.

Brown has spent the past two seasons in Kansas City after originally being drafted by Baltimore. He completely transformed the offensive line and gave quarterback Patrick Mahomes time to be great. Brown has seen time at both left and right tackle throughout his career.

After Brown was selected in the 2018 NFL Draft, he has appeared in 81 regular season games. Nearly all of them have been starts (75) and the last four years’ worth of performances earned Pro Bowl status. Cincinnati will be hoping for the same consistency moving forward.

More on the 2023 NFL offseason, free agency

The NFL 2023 calendar year is set to begin at 4 p.m. ET on March 15 when contracts running through 2022 will officially run out, making those players free agents. Prior to the beginning of free agency, teams will have a chance to designate one franchise or transition tag player, starting on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. ET and ending on March 7. Beginning March 13 through March 15 teams will be allowed a legal negotiation with players who are set to become unrestricted free agents.

In addition to NFL free agency, the new year also marks the beginning of all trades being made official by the league office. April 21 marks the deadline to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets while April 26 marks the deadline for teams to match restricted free agent offers sheets. 722 players are slated to become free agents in 2023.

More on restricted, exclusive rights free agents

Players with only three years of accredited NFL experience become restricted free agents. Their original team will have the option to apply first-round, second-round, original-round, and right-of-fight-of-first-refusal tenders on players at escalating price tags. The higher the round, the more expensive the tender amount; however, if a separate team does offer a contract and the original team does not match that round pick will be conveyed from the new team to the original team.

Right of first refusal only gives a team the option to match or not. If they don’t match, they get nothing in return. An original-round tender would send a draft pick from whatever round the player was drafted back to the original team if they chose not to match. The original team will have five days to match once a player signs an offer sheet from a new team.