We’re fully entrenched in the NFL offseason, and now the two-week window where teams are allowed to use the franchise tag has opened. Before we look at the Falcons’ use of the franchise tag since its inception in 1993, let’s look at what the tag is.
Simply put, the franchise tag is a one-year tender which pays players a specific salary for the season in which it is applied. The salaries of the top five earners by position are averaged out to determine the one-year salary of the player who got tagged. If the player in question was among the five highest earners at his position the season before, he gets 120% of his previous year’s salary if tagged (a 20% pay raise).