The NFL franchise tag players have been determined for the 2017 season, and while only really two of the players tagged (RB Le’Veon Bell and DT Kawann Short) rank among the very best couple of players at their respective positions, there is one clear anomaly among the seven players that received the tag this year: CB Trumaine Johnson.
The franchise tag has become a mechanism teams use simply to prevent players from getting away, and usually serves as a stalling tactic to buy negotiation time so they can work out a long-term contract. Of the seven players to get tagged this year, I would expect at least five to work out a long-term deal with the team that tagged them sooner or later.