Wednesday, February 15 (today) is the first day that NFL teams can designate Franchise or Transition players.
What exactly does that mean? Let's take a look at how the tags are explained, per NFL.com.
» The exclusive franchise tag is a one-year tender offer to a player for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player's position, or 120 percent of the player's previous salary, whichever is greater. The player's team has all negotiating rights to the player.
» The non-exclusive franchise tag is a one-year tender offer to a player for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player's position, or 120 percent of the player's previous salary, whichever is greater. The player can negotiate with other teams. The player's current team has the right to match any offer, or receive two first-round picks as compensation.
» The transition tag is a one-year tender offer to a player for an amount that is the average of the top 10 salaries at the position. It guarantees the original club the right of first refusal to match any offer the player may receive from another team. The transition tag can only be used if the franchise tag is not used by a team in that year. Transition tags can be rescinded, but teams that rescind a transition tag cannot use it again until next season.
Beginning today, clubs have two weeks to designate players with whichever of the three tags they so choose, with the deadline for tagging ending March 1 at 1:00 p.m. PT.
Historically General Manager Reggie McKenzie doesn't tag players all that often; the last time he used it was when the team used the Franchise Tag on safety Tyvon Branch in 2012.
