The NFL franchise tag window opened on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and ran through March 5, giving teams two weeks to decide which players they can’t afford to lose on the open market.
2024 NFL Franchise Tag Tracker
- Tee Higgins, WR | Cincinnati Bengals
$21.816 million - Michael Pittman Jr., WR | Indianapolis Colts
$21.816 million - Josh Allen, EDGE | Jacksonville Jaguars
$24.007 million - Brian Burns, EDGE | Carolina Panthers
$24.007 million - Justin Madubuike, DT | Baltimore Ravens
$22.102 million - Jaylon Johnson, CB | Chicago Bears
$19.802 million - L’Jarius Sneed, CB | Kansas City Chiefs
$19.802 million - Antoine Winfield Jr., S | Tampa Bay Buccaneers
$17.123 million
*The New England Patriots assigned the transition tag ($13.815 million) to safety Kyle Dugger.
How Does the NFL Franchise Tag Work?
By deploying the franchise tag, teams buy themselves an extra year of service time from whichever player they choose as their franchise player. The franchise tender is often used when a club cannot finalize a long-term contract extension with a player it hopes to retain.
Franchise tags are fully guaranteed. As soon as the player signs the tender, his one-year salary cannot be rescinded, even if he’s traded.
Once a team applies a tag, it has a few months to work out an extension with the tagged player.
The NFL has not yet announced this year’s franchise tag extension deadline, but if previous offseasons are any guide, it will likely be on July 15.
After that point, teams and players must pause negotiations until the following offseason.
Exclusive vs. Non-Exclusive Franchise Tags
The most common type of franchise tag is the non-exclusive version. With this iteration of the franchise tender, the player can still negotiate with other teams following the application of the tag.
If a rival club offers a franchised player a contract, the player’s initial team will have the right to refuse to match the offer. If the incumbent squad declines to match the offer sheet, the team proposing the new contract must send two first-round picks in return for signing the player.
The benefit of applying the non-exclusive franchise tag is that it comes at a slightly lower cost than the exclusive tag. The cost of the non-exclusive tag is calculated by averaging the top five cap hits at the position for the previous five years. That figure is then proportionally adjusted for the upcoming season’s salary cap.
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Meanwhile, the cost of the exclusive franchise tag is not fully known when it is applied. Following that year’s free agency, the price of the exclusive franchise tag is calculated as the average of the top five cap numbers at the position when free agency is over. The value is usually finalized in mid-April.
There are times when the two calculations above are not used. If the calculated franchise tag value is lower than 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, then the 120% number is used instead.
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