The 49ers don’t typically have to resort to the franchise tag. They’ve done a nice job of extending players before they reach the point of needing to utilize the one-year tag. This offseason it’s hard to envision the 49ers going to that well.
Because the tag is a one-year, fully-guaranteed deal worth an average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, they tend to only go to players a team wants to ensure stays in the building to work toward a long-term deal. The 49ers likely don’t have any players they’re itching to put the tag on.
Kicker Robbie Gould stayed in San Francisco last time he was an unrestricted free agent thanks to the tag. The 49ers could opt for that route again if they don’t want to go find a new kicker this offseason or they can’t work out a multi-year deal with the 40-year-old. Gould would cost San Francisco $5,393,000 this year on the tag.
Right tackle Mike McGlinchey is another player who conceivably could get tagged. The idea of keeping McGlinchey for one more year to evaluate his long-term value is certainly interesting. The problem arises with the tag amount. Offensive lineman get $18,244,000 on the one-year deal. That’s probably more than McGlinchey will get per year on the open market, and if the 49ers really value him enough to tag him, they’d be more apt to try a long-term deal that decreases that number.
The same issue arises for defensive back Jimmie Ward. The 49ers would probably like to keep him around, but his tag number would be a whopping $14,460,000.
Prices on both McGlinchey and Ward all but eliminate the possibility of the 49ers issuing that franchise tag.
