Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe is the last unsigned franchise player. In theory, he can stay away until the Tuesday after Week 10.
But he most likely won’t.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Bowe plans to show before the regular season begins.
It’s not uncommon for franchise players to stay away until the days preceding the start of the regular season. Since the player isn’t under contract, he can’t be fined. And since the franchise level play doesn’t commence until the real games start, the player gets his full salary if he makes it back in time for the first regular-season game.
For Bowe, that’s $9.5 million for the year. Which translates to more than $558,000 per game.
Given that the deadline for doing a long-term deal has passed, there’s nothing Bowe can really get at this point -- unless he’s looking for a promise that the Chiefs won’t use the tag on him again in 2013.
The real question is whether he’ll show up before the days leading up to the regular-season opener, given that the Chiefs have a new offensive coordinator. Bowe needs to have a big season in order to max out his value in 2013; taking the field unprepared will make that harder to accomplish.