What’s a Franchise Tag in the NFL?

A franchise tag is a designation given by the NFL to a player that allows their current team to retain their rights for another season. The tag is a one-year contract worth the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, or 120% of the player’s previous salary, whichever is greater.

What is a Franchise Tag?

The franchise tag is a designation given by the NFL to a player that is set to become a free agent. The tag prevents the player from becoming a free agent and signing with another team. Instead, the player is signed to a one-year contract with the team that placed the tag on them. The tag can be placed on a player two years in a row, but after that, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.

What is the Purpose of a Franchise Tag?

A franchise tag is a tool used by NFL teams to retain unparalleled free agents. The tag binds the player to the team for one year and pays him an average of the top five salaries at his position, or 120% of his previous salary — whichever is greater.

There are two types of tags — the exclusive tag, which prevents the player from signing with another team, and the non-exclusive tag, which allows the player to negotiate with other teams but gives his current team the right to match any offer. If the team chooses not to match an offer, it receives two first-round draft picks as compensation.

How is a Franchise Tag Determined?

The value of a franchise tag is calculated as the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, or 120% of the player’s previous salary, whichever is greater. The catch is that this number must be greater than the mean salary of all NFL players, which changes from year to year but was just over $2 million in 2016.

For example, if the average salary for a quarterback (the position with the highest average salary) is $20 million and a particular quarterback has a base salary of $10 million, he would be eligible for a 120% raise, or $12 million. However, because that number is below the league average, his franchise tag value would be set at the league average salary, or $2 million.

Types of Franchise Tags

A Franchise Tag is a designation the NFL can place on a player that prevents them from becoming a free agent. There are two types of franchise tags: exclusive and non-exclusive. An exclusive tag prevents the player from negotiating with any other team and locks them into a one-year contract with their current team for a salary that is no less than the average of the top five salaries at their position, or 120% of their previous salary, whichever is greater. A non-exclusive tag also binds the player to their current team, but allows them to negotiate with other teams. If they sign an offer sheet with another team, their current team has the option to match the offer and keep the player, or decline to match the offer and receive two first-round draft picks as compensation.

Non-Exclusive Franchise Tag

The non-exclusive tag gives the team a first-refusal right to retain the player with a one-year offer of the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, or 120 percent of the player’s previous salary, whichever is greater. The player can negotiate with other teams. If he signs an offer sheet from another team, his current team can match the offer and retain him. If it declines to match, it receives two first-round draft choices as compensation.

Exclusive Franchise Tag

This is the most common tag, and it gives the team that tags the player the exclusive right to negotiate a contract with him. The NFL sets a one-year guaranteed salary for players based on their position and how many years they’ve been in the league. For example, a quarterback who’s been in the league for eight years would get a salary of $23.2 million under this tag in 2019.

Franchise Tag Benefits

The franchise tag is a tool teams can use to keep a player on the roster for an additional year. The team must offer the player a one-year contract that is the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, or 120 percent of the player’s salary from the previous year, whichever is greater. The player can sign the contract and play under those terms, or refuse to sign and become a free agent.

Security

The franchise tag is a tool used by NFL teams to retain a player who would otherwise become an unrestricted free agent. The tag binds the player to the team for one year and pays him an average of the top five salaries at his position, or 120 percent of his previous salary, whichever is greater. The tag can be used on players with expiring contracts or on those whose contracts have already expired.

The franchise tag is not without its drawbacks, however. For one, it ties up a large amount of salary cap space that could be used to sign other players. Additionally, it can create tension between a player and his team, as the player may feel undervalued or unloved. In some cases, it can also lead to a player being traded to another team.

Despite these drawbacks, the franchise tag remains a popular tool for NFL teams. It allows them to keep their best players off the open market and prevents other teams from swooping in and signing them away. In many cases, it is the best option for both the team and the player.

Negotiating Power

The most important benefit of the franchise tag is that it gives the team negotiating power. If the team and player can’t agree on a long-term contract, then the player has to play on the one-year deal. This means that the player can’t hold out for a better offer because there isn’t one. The team can also trade the player, although that’s rare.

Franchise Tag Drawbacks

In the National Football League, teams have the option to use a franchise tag on one of their free agents each offseason. Doing so gives the team the right to match any other team’s offer for that player, or receive two first-round draft picks as compensation if they choose not to match. The team can also negotiate a long-term contract with the player. However, there are some drawbacks to using the franchise tag.

Limited Options

The franchise tag essentially gives a team the ability to retain a player for one year by offering them a one-year contract worth the average of the top 5 salaries at their position, or 120% of their previous year’s salary – whichever is greater.

While the franchise tag can be used to keep a star player on a team for an extra year, it also has its drawbacks. For one, it significantly limits the player’s options. They can either sign the one-year deal with their current team or sit out the year and become a free agent the following season.

Another downside of the franchise tag is that it can hinder a team’s ability to sign other players. That’s because each team has a limited amount of salary cap space they can use to sign players, and using the franchise tag on one player takes up a significant portion of that space.

In some cases, the franchise tag can also lead to tension between a player and their team. That’s because the player may feel like they are being undervalued by their team and may want to test free agency to see what other teams are willing to offer them.

All in all, while the franchise tag can be beneficial for both players and teams in certain situations, it also has its fair share of drawbacks that need to be considered before it is used.

High Salary

Franchise tags can often result in a higher salary for the player than they would have received on the open market. This is because the team is required to pay the player an amount that is equal to the average of the top five salaries at their position. As a result, players who are franchised are often among the highest-paid players at their position.

However, this higher salary can sometimes be a hindrance to the team. For example, if a team has several players who are due for big contracts (such as franchise quarterbacks), they may not be able to sign all of them to long-term deals because of the high salary that the franchise tag would mandate.