The Baltimore Ravens are in the same position this offseason with their top pass rusher as are the Pittsburgh Steelers with their top free agent (and number two rusher). Both Bud Dupree for the Steelers and Matthew Judon for the Ravens are coming off of career years just in time to become unrestricted free agents.
In both cases, the teams’ general managers have acknowledged that using the franchise tag is basically something, in the Ravens’ Eric DeCosta’s words something “we’ll probably have to do”, should they fail to reach terms on a long-term extension by the time that the franchise tag deadline expires.