With three weeks until free agency begins, one of the first big dates on the nfl offseason calendar has arrived. Teams can now use the franchise tag to discourage pending free agents from entering the open market starting today. Over the next three weeks and into the new league year, the different types of franchise tags and their usage will be discussed a lot more. What does it mean for the league and the new england patriots, in particular? How do the franchise and transition tags work in the first place?
Which players are eligible to be tagged?
What is the franchise tag?
The franchise tag can be summarized as follows: it is a one-year deal that teams use to discourage unrestricted free agents from entering the open market. The tag can only be used by one organization per offseason, although the majority avoid using it. The use of the tag, in the ideal case, gives a franchisee more time to reach a long-term agreement with him. However, theory and practice can differ on occasion. Despite being a guaranteed deal, the tag provides only limited long-term protection. Players are either refusing to sign up or missing out on certain offseason workouts, training camp, or even the regular season. Each team is allowed to use the franchise or transition tag only once under the new nfl-nflpa collective bargaining agreement.
Despite the fact that teams can cancel it before the aforementioned mid-july deadline, every team has only one chance to name a franchise player. When is the franchise tag window? The franchise tag window opens just 22 days before the start of the new league year, as set out in article 10 of the nfl-nflpa collective bargaining agreement. It will close again two weeks later. the deadline for clubs to designate franchise players will be the twenty-second day before the first day of the new league year, and will end at 4:00 p.m. new york time on the eighth day before the first day of the new league year.
This year, the window will remain open from feb. 20 to march. 5 p.m., 3:59 p.m., est. Any free agent-to-be that has yet to be tagged with either the franchise or transition tag by that time will continue to enter the open market once the new league year begins on mar. At 4 p.m., 13 p.m., est. Et.Â
