Franchise Tagging Starts Today

by Bruce Raffel on Feb 20, 2012 1:00 PM EST

Although free agents cannot be signed by other teams until March 8th, NFL teams can begin placing the Franchise Tag on their own players starting today (Monday, February 20th). The tag must be used between now and March 5th, at which point those not tagged will be free to hit the open market and negotiate with other teams when the feeding frenzy begins.

The Baltimore Ravens are expected to use theFranchise Tag on running back Ray Rice. They could sign him to a new contract before then, but their priority right now is working out a long term deal with quaterback Joe Flacco. The tag on Rice would give the team time to get the rest of the roster in place for 2012 and then allow them a better idea of how to go about retaining the best all-around running back in the NFL.

In the meantime, NFL.com, has gone team-by-team in looking around the league to predict which player will or in some cases, will not be tagged to keep them off of the free agent market.

Some of the players expected to be given the Franchise Tag are those that perhaps the Ravens would consider looking at if they hit the open market. On the other hand, using the tag on Ray Rice would pay him over $7 million in 2012, not too shabby, but if the team does manage to work out a long term deal, the guard Ben Grubbs is probably the next guy on the list that the team might consider tagging.

However, the cost of placing the Franchise Tag on Grubbs will be in the $9 million range, a high price considering they are already paying their other guard, Marshal Yanda, a high salary, which could limit what the team thinks they can afford to do and keep under the cap in order to fill out the remainder of the roster.

The NFL.com story mentions how the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has benefitted the teams and owners, as the formula used to determine the Franchise Tag salaries has resulted in lowering average salaries by as much as 20%. You will see the results in the number of teams utilizing the tag, although they specifically mention that the Ravens AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals, who are one of the teams in the NFL with the most space under the salary cap, rarely if ever use the tag and do not appear to be changing that philosophy in the next two weeks.

See the list of players expected to be tagged at SB Nation.

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Routt is now with the chiefs. Their defense is getting nasty. When they get their injured players back they are going to be a force.

by Raven_all_day on Feb 20, 2012 1:42 PM EST via mobile reply actions

Not if Cassel is still their QB

he’s a bum

by YeahDonnie on Feb 20, 2012 5:53 PM EST up reply actions

I got Kyle orton winning that job.

by Raven_all_day on Feb 20, 2012 6:03 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

He's a free agent

and he sucks too

by YeahDonnie on Feb 20, 2012 6:12 PM EST up reply actions

KCs offense is not enough

And their defense is not as good as ours, so they really need a high scoring O.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Feb 20, 2012 6:59 PM EST up reply actions

I wouldn't be surprised to see them go after Manning

I don’t think they’d try to get Flynn, because they already saw how the small sample size QB thing failed with Cassel.

by YeahDonnie on Feb 20, 2012 8:46 PM EST up reply actions

I feel we’ve seen the last of peyton

by Evan Skev on Feb 20, 2012 9:21 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

Yeah, you may be right

I was of course basing that on the assumption that he comes back healthy. After news of the 4th surgery though, he might be better off hanging it up.

by YeahDonnie on Feb 20, 2012 9:39 PM EST up reply actions

Mike Wallace

Interesting blog on Ravens.com in which Adam Schefter proposes the Ravens (or Bengals) making a run at Mike Wallace by structuring an offer that the Steelers in cap hell can’t match without seriously hurting the team elsewhere.

This is taking a page right out of the Art of War. Interesting to think about.

"the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge."
Hamlet, William Shakespeare

by Fandemonium on Feb 20, 2012 8:10 PM EST reply actions

We’ve been discussing this for a few days now…pitt FO painted themselves into a corner h believing their own hype the past three seasons. They’re now stuck with aging vets and dead money and will pay dearly for not taking advantage of last season’s soft schedule to lose the dead weight.

At this juncture, they’re likely going to go all in and pray that next year’s cap is $20MM higher so they can cover up their failures from 09 and 10. This will include cuts and restructuring but not the type of housecleaning that Oasis was smart enough

by Evan Skev on Feb 20, 2012 8:25 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

Oasis = Ozzie… And Wallace is gone unless they cut whines, farrior, hampton, smith, and tag him. Then they need to restructure rothlis…again. It’s a disaster… Belicheat is licking his chops

by Evan Skev on Feb 20, 2012 8:34 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

LOL

by concretejimmy on Feb 20, 2012 8:38 PM EST up reply actions

missed that discussion

"the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge."
Hamlet, William Shakespeare

by Fandemonium on Feb 20, 2012 10:58 PM EST up reply actions

Only problem is doing that would limit our cap as well as losing our first round. I could see Bengals doing it though. Tons of cap room and 2 first rounders. That would suck going against Green and wallace twice a year.

On Ed Reed:
"I’ve told him to his face many times, ‘You’re the greatest safety ever to play the game,’"
"We all learn from each other, but we all learn most from him."
- Troy Polamalu

by AV23 on Feb 20, 2012 8:51 PM EST up reply actions

Mike Wallace

Is not the missing piece. In fact, he might be overkill in the sense that, yes, we may probably win the Super Bowl, but he would wreck our cap for years. We were not that far from going to The Big Show this year.

I honestly believe that had we had a 100% healthy Evans for the entire season, or at least post bye-week, Jax & Seattle probably would have turned out differently, which means home field throughout; home against the patsies leads to a different result. Not saying that we would have beaten NY in the Super Bowl, but let’s face it, if Evans is able to HOLD ONTO THE FRICKIN’ BALL, we would have found out…

We are close; so very close- just need to tinker around the edges: beef up the O-line, add some depth to LB’s and maybe d-line -that’s it. Nothing monumental. Unless something really weird happens and we unexpectedly loose some really big, key names, and a lot of them, I do not see us making a big splash in FA i.e. like a Wallace. Probably just a few second tier guys that Ozzie is able to pick up at the thrift store i.e. good player at a great price.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
"God's whiskers! Your face is as hideous as the demon's in my storybook!"
"I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they do today."
"It's big for a reason."

For Pittsburgh fans, that's Pope, Twain, Rostand, Rogers and Megamind

by vlad755 on Feb 21, 2012 2:01 PM EST up reply actions