Tags

The deadline for NFL teams to apply their franchise tag is today. So far, the following players have been tagged:

Nick Folk  K  New York Jets
Greg Hardy  DE  Carolina Panthers
Jimmy Graham  TE  New Orleans Saints (non-exclusive)

Short list.

There are two versions of the franchise tag: exclusive and non-exclusive. Exclusive means that the tagged player can not negotiate an offer sheet with any other team. The non-exclusive version means that the tagged player can negotiate with another team but the original team has the right to match the offer. If the team decides against matching the offer, the new team has to compensate the old team with two first-round draft choices. That's a pretty steep price. It's also a price that some team might be willing to pay for a player as talented as Jimmy Graham. The Saints and Graham might be in for a fairly ugly fight. The fight has actually already started. Graham feels that he should be tagged as a receiver because he produces like a receiver. The Saints feel that he should be tagged as a tight end because he, well, plays tight end. Money-wise, it's a pretty significant disagreement. And, it's all about the money. There's a nearly $5 million difference between the franchise tag cost for a receiver and the cost for a tight end. I actually side with the Saints on this. Graham plays tight end. He may line up wide a decent amount of the time but he's still a tight end. It's the nature of the game today. An outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense rushes the passer as frequently as a 4-3 defensive end but he's still an outside linebacker in today's game. Until we start labeling all football players as simply football players they will be labeled by the position that they typically play. Right now, Graham plays tight end. He didn't mind that designation until it was going to cost him some money. He hates it now. He hates it so much that he's said that he'll appeal/file suit/whatever legal bitching is available to him to fight the position designation that he's had for a while. The Saints are actually lucky in this likely battle as someone in the league office will determine the position at which Graham will be tagged. Lucky in that their upset tight end can't blame them for the position designation. Tight ends are making a more receiver-like impact around the league. Eventually their pay will grow closer to that of the receivers. The gap in the franchise tag costs between the positions will get smaller. For now, the difference is nearly $5 million and Jimmy Graham doesn't like it one bit. I've got a solution for Jimmy Graham. Instead of spending all of this time and energy bitching about the franchise tag salary, he should sit down with his team and negotiate a very rich, long term contract.

Only three tagged players. There were eight last year. That was down from 19 in 2012. That high of 19 in 2012 might have been due to the uncertainty of the effects of the new CBA. The very slight cap increase last year might have kept the tagging number down. There really wasn't much spending throughout free agency last year so teams might not have been too worried about other teams throwing a bunch of money at their players. I really think that there are too many factors that go into each team's thinking about their own free agents to settle or any one reason for the use/non-use of the franchise tag.

It doesn't look right to see a kicker saddled with a franchise tag. Maybe it's just me but I always have an automatic connection of thinking that a player with a franchise tag as actually being a "franchise" player. No matter how much I appreciate the importance of a kicker I have a hard time thinking of any kicker as a "franchise" player. Jimmy Graham and Greg Hardy are two of the best players at their positions. They are two of the best football players in the league. Nick Folk just looks a little out of place next to them. Anyway, tagging a kicker isn't unusual. There were five(!) kickers tagged in 2012.

Until the tagged player signs the franchise tender, the team can yank that tag away. Once the player signs the tender the contract becomes guaranteed. It's actually a real nice contract but there's none of the big signing bonuses that all players love. There's also no long term security that a negotiated contract sometimes provides. While the team can yank that franchise tag away, the tagged player is pretty much stuck. Graham, with the non-exclusive tag, can negotiate with other teams but the Saints still pretty much control his movement. Basically, players with the franchise tag are free agents without all the fun of free agency.