The Philadelphia Eagles might still be celebrating -- deservedly so -- their win in Super Bowl LIX, but the first major step of the 2025 player-acquisition period began Tuesday, with the opening of the franchise-tag window. Until March 4, teams can use the tag to block one of their own impending free agents from hitting the open market, making it an extremely powerful tool for management to shape free agency.
Once the tag is applied, the team and player have more time to negotiate a long-term deal -- that's the best-case scenario. In the less ideal outcome, no long-term agreement is reached -- in some cases, nobody even wants to reach one -- and the player plays the season under a lucrative one-year pact. Pay is either set by the franchise-tag formula -- depending on the type of tag, it can be based on the top average salaries at the player's position or 120 percent of his previous salary -- or potentially negotiated by the player and team. Pay also increases each subsequent time the player is tagged by his team, which can happen a maximum of three times. Players generally hate the tag, because it offers no long-term security.
Reminder: Each team can use one franchise tag per offseason. The franchise tag can be exclusive (the player is not free to sign with another team) or non-exclusive (another team can sign the player, but it must surrender two first-round draft selections to the team losing the player), and the deadline for tagged players to sign a long-term deal this year is July 15. Last year, eight players received the franchise tag, and seven eventually secured a long-term contract, meaning the tag was finally used in the spirit in which it was originally intended.
Here’s a look at potential candidates for this go around:
Tee Higgins played the 2024 season under the franchise tag and had a career-high 10 touchdowns in just 12 games, chipping in 911 yards on 73 receptions. He is a critical element of one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses, and his quarterback, Joe Burrow, has repeatedly publicly applied pressure to the Bengals front office to spend to keep their best players. My colleague Tom Pelissero reported Monday that Cincinnati aims to get a long-term deal done with Higgins before the March 4 deadline to apply the tag. If the two sides can't reach a deal by then, a second franchise tag is considered likely, to buy the sides more time to work on one -- though if he were to play under the tag, Higgins would be owed 120 percent of his previous year’s salary, which would amount to just over $26 million. One big issue here: Ja’Marr Chase, coming off a triple crown receiving season and heading into the final year of his rookie contract, is due for an extension, and so is the Bengals’ best defensive player, Trey Hendrickson. That is a lot of mouths to feed at once. Higgins would likely be almost any other team's No. 1 receiver. If he were to hit the open market, he would almost certainly be the most attractive free agent (non-quarterback variety) in the league.
The most intriguing of decisions in the league, what the Vikings choose to do with Sam Darnold will tell us how they feel about the veteran quarterback and maybe even more about what they think of J.J. McCarthy and his recovery from a knee injury suffered before the 2024 regular season even began. McCarthy was selected in the first round of 2024 NFL Draft to be the quarterback of the future, and Darnold was supposed to be the bridge to McCarthy. But McCarthy's injury put his debut on hold, while Darnold had a career renaissance under the tutelage of Kevin O’Connell, leading the team to 14 wins and a wild-card berth. His final two games were clunkers, but that doesn’t erase what he did over the rest of the season, and the Vikings could use the tag -- which is likely to be around $40 million for a quarterback -- to kick the can further down the road. Given how many teams desperately need a QB, Darnold will have a strong market if he is not tagged.
After watching Patrick Mahomes take six sacks and 16 pressures in the Super Bowl, we know shoring up the offensive line has to be a priority for the Chiefs, and keeping Trey Smith -- Pro Football Focus' highest-rated guard among players bound for the open market -- would seem to be the first step. Guards, though, rarely get tagged, because in cases where the pay under a tag is determined by the top average salaries at a player's position, the salaries of all offensive linemen are used, and the generally higher salaries of tackles raise the tag number for guards. This season, the number for offensive linemen is likely to be around $25 million, per Over the Cap. The Chiefs might need to undertake some salary-cap gymnastics to make it work, but the Pro Bowler is good enough to at least consider the possibility.
Jevon Holland had a strong first three years for the Dolphins, generating 21 passes defensed and five picks -- second-most on the team in both categories -- over that span. But Miami's salary-cap constraints and a dip in performance by both Holland (four passes defensed and zero picks in 15 games) and the Dolphins defense (which fell to 18th in yards allowed after consecutive top-six finishes) in 2024 could mean he hits the market when his rookie contract runs out this offseason. He’ll have a robust one, though.
Honorable mention
It likely won’t happen, because tagging Chris Godwin (who was tagged in 2021 and 2022 before inking a three-year pact) for the third time in his career would be too cost-prohibitive. But after his red-hot start to the 2024 season -- he was on pace for career bests in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns before dislocating his ankle in Week 7 -- the Bucs have already made clear they want to keep him ahead of free agency. If they can’t, he will be coveted.