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The deadline for teams to sign their franchise tag players to longterm contracts comes at 3:00 p.m. (Arrowhead Time) today. This means that the Chiefs have until this afternoon to ink Dwayne Bowe to a longterm contract, or else he must play out the season under his one-year franchise tender, which he has not yet signed, or not play at all.
The choice there would be the former, playing under the one-year franchise tag. The Chiefs still retain Bowe's rights and he'll still be a Chief in 2012. But no longterm deal by the end of today means Bowe and the Chiefs will be in the same situation next year faced with Bowe's expiring contract.
The chances of Bowe getting a longterm deal today seem extremely slim. Already several reports have said a deal's not happening including Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com who reported late last week that talks between Bowe and the Chiefs "have gone nowhere." Separately, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported not to expect a deal between the two sides before today's deadline.
As Matt Conner wrote over the weekend, the Chiefs haven't said anything, publicly or privately, about the status of Bowe. After I saw the Drew Brees deal get done on Friday, I was hoping the Chiefs could surprise us, too, and get the Bowe deal done. That probably won't be happening.
3:00 p.m. (Arrowhead Time) is today's deadline but by many accounts we aren't looking forward to anything.