The window for NFL teams to use the franchise tag this offseason opens on Tuesday, but the Tennessee Titans won’t be one of the teams that uses it.
There are two different types of franchise tags at teams’ disposal — exclusive and non-exclusive — both of which are defined below, per NBC Sports’ Charlotte Edmonds:
Exclusive: Teams must offer the selected player a one-year contract no less than either the average of the top-five salaries at that player’s position based on April of the current year or 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater.
Non-exclusive: Teams must offer the selected player a one-year contract no less than the average of the top-five cap hits of that player’s positions or 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater.
Teams also have the option of using the transition tag, which is defined as follows:
Transition tags are similar to franchise tags with two exceptions. Rather than top-five, transition tags use the average of the top-10 highest players at a position and don’t provide any guaranteed compensation clause.
Unlike the franchise tag, teams are given no promise of an asset at the end of the deal. If a team refuses to match a competing team’s offer, therefore losing the player, they do not receive any draft picks in exchange.
Here’s a look at the values of the franchise tags for each position, per ESPN’s Field Yates:
QB: $32.416 million
RB: $10.091 million
WR: $19.743 million
TE: $11.345 million
OL: $18.244 million
DE: $19.727 million
DT: $18.937 million
LB: $20.926 million
CB: $18.14 million
S: $14.46 million
P/K: $5.393 million
The last time the Titans used the franchise tag was in 2020 when they tagged Derrick Henry to give themselves more time to work out a long-term deal, something the two sides ultimately did.
Tennessee doesn’t have that caliber of player set to hit the open market this offseason, nor does it have a pending free agent who would even sniff the listed values at each position, thus the team won’t be using either tag.
Looking ahead to 2024, the tag might come into play with star defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, who is in the final year of his deal in 2023.
However, things seem to be positive in terms of Simmons and the Titans getting something done, so hopefully that won’t be necessary.
