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Assessing Monday’s NFL Franchise Tag Activity

Six players were given the franchise tag designation by NFL teams leading up to Monday's deadline to make the move. Most notably missing from the list was Detroit's Ndamukong Suh.

The NFL media cycle is seemingly ubiquitous and unending. Roughly a month after the Super Bowl, the discussion shifts to free agency and whether or not those big name players set to hit the market will stay with their current team or sign elsewhere. The precursor to the official start of free agency which begins next Tuesday has to do with the franchise tag, those teams that will use the designation, and who they’ll use it on.

For those who’ve heard the term (most NFL fans have) and aren’t too familiar with how it works, I’ll try my best to give a quick explanation. Some people hear the word “franchise” and immediately think the tag is reserved exclusively for that all-important “franchise player” whose presence is essential to the success of a given team. Though partially true, it isn’t always the case.

Simply put, the franchise tag is a leverage play of sorts on the part of the team from a contract negotiation standpoint. Only one player per franchise can be given this designation. A tagged player is offered a one-year fully guaranteed contract equal to the average of what the top five players at the position are earning. If the player is already earning more than this amount, the value of the deal will come out to 120 percent of his current salary.

Once tagged, the team has the right to match any offer sheet extended to that player from another franchise. Generally speaking, if the player ends up signing somewhere else, his former team receives two first-round draft picks as compensation.

There’s also the transition tag which is a less exclusive version of the franchise tag. Two players per team are allowed to be transitioned instead of one for the franchise designation. The one-year tender offer is also less than that given to franchised players. Teams that use the transition tag forego their right to franchise a player for that year.

Now that the explanation of how it works is out of the way, let’s take a look at how things panned out in 2015. The deadline for teams to tag players was 4 PM on Monday. All in all, six players ended up getting tagged. It was a healthy mix of high profile free agents expected to be franchised and a few others whose appearance on the list may have come as a surprise to most. Perhaps the biggest unrestricted free agent of them all ended up getting left alone and will have his chance to test the free agency waters.

Let’s take a look.

Players Who Were Given the Franchise Tag for 2015

Dez Bryant, wide receiver, Dallas Cowboys

This wasn’t much of a surprise. Even though the Cowboys could’ve also tagged DeMarco Murray who’s also set to become a free agent, the consensus was that it was coming Bryant’s way. The talented pass catcher led the league in touchdown receptions (16) and finished eighth in total yards.

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones has reiterated on multiple occasions his commitment to getting a long-term deal done. You have to think that Bryant’s camp will be looking for a significant upgrade from the $12.823 million tag number at the wide receiver position. Will it be Calvin Johnson level money, whose contract averages around $16 million per year? We shall see.

Demaryius Thomas, wide receiver, Denver Broncos

Much like Bryant, the decision to tag Thomas wasn’t all that much of a shocker even though they could’ve also gone with Julius Thomas as well. Both have benefited from having Peyton Manning behind center and probably wouldn’t bolt for any other team except one with a halfway competent quarterback.

Much like Bryant, Thomas could make the case for a deal approaching Johnson-esque standards. He’s finished no worse than fourth league-wide in receiving yards the past two seasons and no worse than seventh in touchdown receptions.

Justin Houston, linebacker, Kansas City Chiefs

It’s always nice to have the kind of season Houston had in a contract year. He came within a half sack of tying Michael Strahan’s NFL record with 22 quarterback takedowns in 2014. The tender comes to $13.195 million which is a significant raise over his nearly $1.6 million cap hit last season.

Jason Pierre-Paul, defensive end, New York Giants

Pierre-Paul’s stellar play in 2014 largely fell under the radar due to the Giants less than spectacular campaign. His 77 total tackles was second in the league for a defensive lineman (only J.J. Watt had more) and he also finished with 12.5 sacks, third-best at the position. The defensive end franchise tag ($14.813 million) is the second most costly (behind quarterback at $18.544 million) and Big Blue will likely try furiously to lock him up long term as part of their drive to get back into the playoff picture in the NFC East.

Stephen Gostkowski, kicker, New England Patriots

This is where those who hear “franchise” will really raise their eyebrows. Did the Patriots really just franchise their kicker? It’s actually a pretty cost effective move given the tender for kickers is only $4.126 million. Actually, in Gostkowski’s case, it comes out to $4.56 million since his 2014 salary was already one of the highest at the position.

Gostkowski has been as reliable as they come. He led the league in kicks made (35) and was third in overall field goal percentage (95 percent) last season.

Charles Clay, tight end, Miami Dolphins

Clay was the only player given the transition tag. His tender under that designation comes to slightly over $7 million as a tight end. This move was the most puzzling of the day to me. Clay only caught three touchdown passes in 2014 which was 22nd in the league amongst tight ends. Now all of a sudden he has the eighth-highest cap number on the team.

Notable Players Not Tagged

Ndamukong Suh, defensive tackle, Detroit Lions

Suh would’ve cost a whopping $26.895 million to tag given his gargantuan cap hit from last year. When you consider how much the Lions already have committed to Johnson and quarterback Matt Stafford, it simply made more financial sense to let Suh pursue free agency.

Nick Fairley, defensive tackle, Detroit Lions

The other cog from that formidable interior defensive line of the Lions, Fairley was also rumored to be a tag target for Detroit. A knee injury suffered in late October hampered his effectiveness in 2014.

DeMarco Murray, running back, Dallas Cowboys

It was either him or Bryant and the Cowboys chose the latter. Murray finally stayed healthy and was arguably the best at the position in 2014. Dallas will be hard-pressed to sign both to extensions given their current cap situation ($6.564 million below the cap).

Julius Thomas, tight end, Denver Broncos

Much like Dallas and Detroit, the Broncos had two prominent players that could’ve been franchised. Denver’s talented tandem of “Thomases” have been two of Peyton Manning’s favorite targets and it’s possible neither could return. Julius could go the Jimmy Graham route and look for wide receiver level compensation given the way he has been used in Denver.

Jerry Hughes, linebacker, Buffalo Bills

Hughes was a crucial component of a Buffalo defensive front that gave opposing quarterbacks fits in 2014. His ten sacks was tied with teammate Marcell Dareus for seventh in the league. Add in Mario Williams’ contribution of 14.5 and you have three Bills’ defensive lineman accounting for 34.5 sacks last season.

Devin McCourty, safety, New England Patriots

McCourty was looked at as a possible franchise target in New England but instead will hit free agency. He counted $5.115 million against the cap last year. It’s probably a financially sensible move on New England’s part to avoid bringing that number up to $9.618 million if they tagged him given their need to get under the cap by next week.

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