– What is and how does a franchise tag work in the NFL?
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In the NFL, players sign contracts to play with teams. When those contracts are up, the players become free agents, which means they can sign with any team. The NFL allows a team to designate one player a year with the franchise tag. That prevents them from becoming free agents and signing with another team. Usually an NFL team will only use the franchise tag on a very good player they hope to keep for a long time, but haven’t been able to work out a contract with. The franchise tag is a one-year contract that pays the player the average of the top 5 players at their position, or 120% of their previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. An NFL team can use the franchise tag on the same player for more than one year, but for the second year, it would add 20% to their salary and for the third year, it adds 44% to their previous year’s salary. It’s a way to keep the best players on your team while working out a long-term contract, although sometimes it’s a way to protect the NFL team from making a long-term commitment to a player they aren’t quite sure is worth it.
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