The NFL franchise tag deadline has come and gone, as plenty of teams waited until the last minute to slap the tag on key players in order to prevent them from being unrestricted free agents. The Baltimore Ravens finally put the tag on Lamar Jackson while the New York Giants had to come to a decision whether to prevent Daniel Jones or Saquon Barkley from hitting free agency (they were able to retain both).
The Dallas Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders wasted no time in making sure their top running backs didn’t hit the market, tagging Tony Pollard and Josh Jacobs more than 24 hours prior to the deadline. Six teams decided to use the franchise tag this offseason, creating even more speculation if those teams can reach long term deals with those tagged players.
With the franchise tag deadline passed, here are the winners and losers as free agency is less than a week away.
Winner: New York Giants
The Giants were able to accomplish the goals they set — reach a long term deal with Daniel Jones and franchise tag Saquon Barkley. From an organizational standpoint, this is a win for the franchise (even if it wasn’t settled until 3:54 p.m. — six minutes before the deadline).
Jones signed a four-year, $160 million deal with $82 million fully guaranteed. Signing Jones allowed New York to place the franchise tag on Barkley and giving the front office until July to reach a long term deal with Barkley.
The question that persists for the Giants. Was 9-6-1 and a divisional round playoff appearance with a quarterback that had a career year and a running back that’s averaged fewer than 4.5 yards per carry post-ACL surgery the ceiling? The Giants are going to find out in the coming years.
For this offseason, New York is keeping Jones and Barkley. That’s a win for the franchise.
Loser: Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys were wise not to let Tony Pollard hit the free agent market, placing the franchise tag on him and giving the talented running back $10.91 million for the 2023 season. While Dallas gives themselves more time to work out a long-term deal with Pollard, they still are paying Ezekiel Elliott $16.72 million in 2023.
Dallas is currently paying $27.63 million for two running backs next season. That has to be corrected in the coming months. The Cowboys can’t build a Super Bowl championship roster with over $16 million in salary cap space going to Elliott.
Elliott’s contract has…
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