5 Things To Remember About Dwayne Bowe's Franchise Tag

So the deadline for Dwayne Bowe to sign a longterm deal has come and gone. Unless the Chiefs are playing a really big joke on us, Bowe did not sign a longterm deal with the team. 3:00 p.m. (Arrowhead Time) was the deadline and I haven't heard anything, which means it's the franchise tag or bust for Bowe.

A few notes and things to remember about Bowe with the franchise tag...

Dwayne Bowe will still be in a Chiefs uniform next year. Barring something unforeseen (like a trade), Bowe will be in uniform come September. Actually, make that in uniform by July...

Bowe says he'll be at training camp. Will he be there for all of it? Something we'll just have to wait and find out. Absent any, as GM Scott Pioli would call it, "noise" from either side, I don't have any reason to think Bowe will sit out the regular season or training camp. Others may say differently with Bowe but, now to quote Todd Haley, 'I go by what I see'.

The Chiefs can keep Bowe in 2013 if they want. Yep, they can. The franchise tag again. It'll make the two-year payout over $20 million which is probably about what'd he get on a longterm deal in the first two years, if not more.

Branden Albert becomes a lot more important. His contract is up after the 2013 season. So is Glenn Dorsey's and Dustin Colquitt's, as well as two inside linebackers battling for a job -- Jovan Belcher and Brandon Siler. It may not be as star-studded as this year's Carr-Bowe headliner but there's a good chunk of free agents in that group. The problem this creates...

...is deciding who to use the franchise tag on. If the Chiefs need to use it again which, looking at that list, they probably will. Bowe? Albert? Dorsey? The Chiefs' track record in the last few years had been locking franchise guys up early -- DJ, Jamaal Charles and Brandon Flowers. But in the last year the Chiefs have seen Brandon Carr walk and now face the possibility of the same with Bowe, Albert or another player.