Tuesday is a significant marker in the road to NFL free agency. Beginning at 1 p.m. PT, NFL teams are allowed to designate a player either a "franchise" player or "transition" player. These players usually can still negotiate in free agency, but it puts a hinderance, and with one of the tags, a prohibition on it.
The franchise tag comes with exclusive and non-exclusive options. The exclusive option means a player can only negotiate with his current team, while the non-exclusive allows him to negotiate with other teams. The exclusive option offers a higher one-year salary if the player and team cannot agree to terms and he signs the tender.