DE Allen Gets Slapped with the Franchise Tag by the Chiefs

Posted by Matt Loede on February 19th, 2008 filed in News

 

After having a season in which he led the NFL with 15.5 sacks, Chiefs DE Jared Allen is going to get a pretty big one-year payday for it, as the Chiefs on Monday slapped the franchise tag on him. The tag means that the big DE will get paid the average salary of the league’s five highest-paid players at his position - a whopping $8.879 million. Allen missed the first two games due to a suspension, but then played like a mad man the rest of the season, putting up huge numbers with 65 tackles and 15.5 sacks for minus 111 yards. Without the tag Allen would have been free to go as a free agent once the market opened up on February 29th.

In his four seasons with the Chiefs after being drafted in the 4th round in the 2004 draft, Allen has been all the Chiefs could ask for and more. He is one of the most underrated players in the league at his position, and rarely gets any kudos for his strong play. He has 43 sacks in his four seasons with the Chiefs for minus 282 yards. He also has put up 230 total tackles. Allen and the Chiefs will continue to talk about wrapping up a long-term deal.