Just hours after reports surfaced that the Chiefs were open to a trade for offensive tackle Branden Albert, Albert has decided to remove any uncertainty about his current contractual status.
Albert has accepted his franchise tender, Mike Garafolo of USA Today reports. That means Albert won’t be a training camp holdout and will play this season for a guaranteed base salary of $9.828 million this season if he doesn’t get a long-term deal done in the next four months.
Signing the franchise tender doesn’t preclude Albert from continuing to negotiate with the Chiefs and doesn’t mean he won’t be traded, but it does eliminate the possibility that the Chiefs could pull the franchise tender and that Albert could find himself entering free agency at a time when not many teams are spending much money.
The Chiefs are still believed to be considering left tackles Luke Joeckel and Eric Fisher with the first overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft.