Winners and losers from NFL franchise tag deadline: Russell Wilson or the Broncos? Saquon Barkley or the Giants?

As the NFL new year awaits just over a week away, nine teams opted by the Tuesday deadline to designate a player with either a franchise or transition tag.

The move gives the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers control over a player’s 2024 rights each would like to keep regardless of whether they reach a long-term deal by the July deadline.

How did the 2024 deadline compare to recent tag trends?

Eight franchise tags and one transition tag (Patriots safety Kyle Dugger) was within range of the 7.2 tags allocated on average from 2014-2023, according to a Yahoo Sports analysis of data collected by OverTheCap’s Brad Spielberger.

Antoine Winfield Jr. got the franchise tag from the Bucs, which puts him on course to make $17.123 million in the 2024 season. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

Exactly 36 offensive and 36 defensive players received tags during that decade-long stretch, though annual trends were less consistent. This is the first season since 2019 that more defenders (six) were tagged than offensive players (two). The last stretch of defensive-leaning tag years introduced a four-year run (and a fifth tied) of primarily defensive tags. Could this season be the beginning of the next run?

Thirty of 72 (41.6%) players tagged from 2014-23 reached a long-term deal with their team before the July tag deadline.

With that context in mind on how 2024 compares to recent years, here are Yahoo Sports’ tag deadline winners and losers.

Winners

The Taggers

The Ravens, Panthers, Bears, Bengals, Colts, Jaguars, Chiefs, Patriots and Buccaneers may have wondered last month: Will tagging our star risk a prohibitive 2024 salary-cap hit if we can’t reach a long-term deal?

The tag benefits teams by giving them a year of control that not all sports leagues offer, but there is a cost: absorbing the entirety of the cost’s cap hit in a…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-03-06 04:17:00

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