NFL franchise tag window, explained: How does it work, and what does it mean for the Patriots?

The NFL franchise tag window will open on Tuesday.

With three weeks to go until the start of free agency, one of the first major dates on the NFL offseason calendar has arrived. Starting today, teams can use the franchise tag to keep pending free agents from entering the open market.

The different kinds of franchise tags and their usage will be mentioned quite a bit over the next three weeks and leading into the new league year. What exactly does it all mean for the league and the New England Patriots alike, however? How do the franchise and transition tags work in the first place? And which players are candidates to get tagged?

Let’s try to answer all of these questions.

What is the franchise tag?

In basic terms, the franchise tag can be explained as follows: it is a fully guaranteed one-year contract teams use to keep unrestricted free agents from hitting the open market. Each organization can only use the tag once per offseason, although most opt against employing it altogether.

Ideally, the use of the tag buys a club more time to reach a long-term contract with its franchise player. However, theory and practice tend to differ on occasion.

From a player perspective, after all, the tag offers limited long-term security despite being a guaranteed contract. This leads to players either not signing it and skipping parts of offseason workouts, training camp or even the regular season.

Meanwhile, teams shy away from using the tag because of the comparatively large salary cap hits associated with it.

The current NFL-NFLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement allows for each team to use the franchise or transition tag only once. Even though teams can rescind it before the aforementioned mid-July deadline, every team has only one shot at naming a franchise player.

When is the franchise tag window?

As specified in Article 10 of the NFL-NFLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement, the franchise tag window opens exactly 22 days before the start of the new league year. It will close again two weeks later:

The period for Clubs to designate Franchise Players will begin on the twenty-second day preceding the first day of the new League Year and will end at 4:00 pm New York time on the eighth day preceding the first day of the new League Year.

For this year, this means the window will remain open from Feb. 20 until Mar. 5 at 3:59 p.m. ET. Any free agent-to-be not tagged with either the franchise or transition tag by that point will remain scheduled to enter the open market once the new league year begins on Mar. 13 at 4 p.m. ET.

The closing of the window is only one part of the full franchise schedule. After employing the tag, after all, a team has until mid-July to reach a contract extension with its franchise player or else said player spends the upcoming season under the franchise tag and appropriate salary cap hit:

Any Club designating a Franchise Player shall have until 4:00 p.m., New York time, on July 15 of the League Year (or, if July 15 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the first Monday thereafter) for which the designation takes effect to sign the player to a multiyear contract or extension. After that date, the player may sign only a one-year Player Contract with his Prior Club for that season, and such Player Contract may not be extended until after the Club’s last regular season game of that League Year.

What types of tags are there?

The NFL differentiates between three different types of tags: the non-exclusive franchise tag, the exclusive franchise tag, and the transition tag.

Non-exclusive franchise tag: The non-exclusive franchise tag is the most commonly used method to keep unrestricted free agents from hitting the market. The one-year tender offer pays a player the average of the top five salaries at the respective position over the last five years, or 120 percent of his previous salary — depending on whichever is greater. In the meantime, the player can negotiate with other teams but the club applying the tag has the right to match any offer or receive two first-round draft picks as compensation in case the player leaves.

Exclusive franchise tag: The exclusive franchise tag, as the name indicates, prohibits other teams from negotiating with the tagged player. However, it also carries a higher financial burden with it: the one-year tender sheet is worth the average of the top five salaries of the player’s position for the current year, or 120 percent of his previous salary. The one-year basis as opposed to the five years used with the non-exclusive tag means that the exclusive one is more expensive.

Transition tag: The third form of the tag also functions as a one-year fully-guaranteed contract, but still works a bit differently. On the one hand, it “only” pays a player the average of the top 10 salaries at the position over the last season and is therefore cheaper than the two franchise tags. On the other hand, however, it only guarantees a club the right of first refusal to match any incoming offers for the player. If he leaves, his now-former team will not receive any compensation.

How much does franchise-tagging a player cost?

The NFL has yet to announce its salary cap for the upcoming season, even though the expectation is that the notice will be sent to clubs in the near future. Still, until the league has set its spending ceiling for the upcoming season we will have to work based off of projections as far as the franchise and transition tag values are concerned.

Those projections, courtesy of Over the Cap, currently look as follows.

Which Patriots players might get tagged this year?

The Patriots have not used the franchise tag since Joe Thuney in 2020, and only employed it twice in total over the last decade (2015 Stephen Gostkowski being the other player to get tagged). The primary reason for the club’s inactivity in that area of free agency was its lack of viable options: the tag simply was not a financially attractive tool in most years.

This offseason, however, might be different. In fact, there are three realistic candidates on the roster to get tagged:

S Kyle Dugger ($16.22M): The former second-round draft pick has developed into a cornerstone player in the New England secondary, and the presumptive heir to Devin McCourty’s former role on defense. At 28, Dugger is a bit on the older side but he has proven himself one of the better safeties in football and would be worth a long-term investment — one that might get kickstarted via the use of the franchise tag.

TE Hunter Henry ($12.03M): Out of the three players listed here, Henry appears to be the least likely candidate to get tagged. That said, the tight end tag number of $12.03 million is a fairly reasonable one compared to other positions and Henry’s own cap hit of $15.5 million in 2023. With the Patriots having to rebuild their tight end group, there might be a non-zero chance that they view the team captain as a building block to be kept around.

OL Michael Onwenu ($19.89M): Onwenu has proven himself a starter-level player at both guard and tackle, which means that O-line-needy teams would likely be happy to see him enter the open market. The Patriots, of course, have a chance to shut that door by applying the franchise tag — a somewhat costly option to keep Onwenu from entering free agency, but one that might be necessary if rumors are to be believed.

The other 13 members of the Patriots’ class of unrestricted free agents is eligible to get tagged as well. However, it seems unlikely that any of them will be considered to receive the tag to be kept from the open market.