Franchise Tag Projections For Chiefs' Dwayne Bowe, Brandon Carr

We're currently working on a list of the Kansas City Chiefs free-agents-to-be but we already know who the two biggest names are -- WR Dwayne Bowe and CB Brandon Carr. Both have contracts that expire at the end of the league year which means they're scheduled to be free agents in March.

If they want to retain one or both players (and hopefully it's both), they'll have the franchise tag available. The formula to determine the franchise tag has changed so it's not known exactly what the number will be but Brian McIntyre of Football Outsiders has offered up a few projections on those amounts.

For receiver, the projection is $9.443M - $9.806M. That's roughly the cost of keeping Dwayne Bowe a Chief in 2012 via the franchise tag.

For cornerback, the projection is $10.431M - $10.832M. That's roughly the amount Carr would expected to be paid under the franchise tag.

From a strategic standpoint, it seems to make more sense to tag Bowe and try to work something out with Carr.

By the way, be sure to check out those links. A boatload of information and projections for the franchise tag.