While the upcoming Super Bowl will dominate the sporting and cultural landscape for the next couple of weeks, it won’t be long until the NFL moves on and looks ahead to next season.
The American football calendar never lies low for too long, with the scouting combine, free agency and college draft all due in the next three months.
A phrase you’ll hear plenty in the next few weeks will be ‘franchise tagging’, a buzzy phrase that makes up part of the complicated landscape of NFL contracts.
Here’s an explainer of what it means.
What is the franchise tag?
Simply put, the franchise tag is a type of one-year contract that every NFL team can issue once - and once only - every offseason.
It allows a franchise to retain a player on a guaranteed deal for a pre-set, non-negotiated salary. Teams can only use the franchise tag on a player who is due to become an unrestricted free agent.
What are the two types of franchise tag?
There are two types of franchise tags that teams are able to use.
The first is an exclusive tag, which prohibits a player from negotiating with another team. It guarantees the player a salary that is either calculated on the average of the top five salaries from that player’s position during the current year, or is 120 per cent of the player’s previous salary - whichever is the highest.
The non-exclusive tag allows a player to negotiate with other teams. However, the original team has the option to match or refuse other offers and be awarded two first-round draft picks as compensation. The salary for this tag is determined by the average of the top five salaries from that player’s position from the previous five years or 120 per cent of the player’s previous salary - again, whichever is highest.
Which type of franchise tag is used more?
The non-exclusive franchise tag is the more popular option as it comes with a cheaper salary and has the lure of the two first-round draft picks.
What else do you need to know?
The franchise tag can be used on a player for consecutive seasons, but gets more expensive every year as the player would be guaranteed at least 120 per cent of their first franchise tag in the second year.
Who does it benefit more?
Players do not tend to be keen on the franchise tag as they are usually looking to secure a long-term contract to protect them from loss of form or injury. For that reason, the teams tend to prefer it, as it minimises the risk of being laden down by big multi-year contracts.
Can a player resist a franchise tag?
In theory yes, but it requires the player to hold out during training camp or even into the season.
Le’Veon Bell is perhaps the most famous recent example here as he sat out the entire 2018 season after refusing to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers without a long-term contract. The New York Jets then handed him a four-year deal in 2019.
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