The 49ers’ window to make a decision on defensive lineman Arik Armstead is officially open. If they do want to use the franchise tag on the five-year veteran, they’ll have to do so by 1:00 pm PST on March 12. The date to use the tag was pushed back a couple days due to uncertainty about the ongoing CBA negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Player’s Association.
San Francisco has had all year to start figuring out what they want to do with Armstead, but now their clock is officially ticking down.
If they do use the franchise tag on Armstead, they’ll owe him around $18 million fully guaranteed in 2020, and he’d be an unrestricted free agent again next season.
Armstead wouldn’t have to sign the tag right away though. It simply wouldn’t allow him to negotiate with other teams in free agency, so the 49ers may wind up using it just to keep their negotiating window open for a long-term deal. That would be beneficial to both sides since the cash-strapped 49ers could spread out some of Armstead’s money, while the defensive lineman would have more long-term security.
San Francisco could also tag Armstead with the intention of trading him – a move we saw the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs use on defensive ends last season. That would allow the 49ers to at least gain some sort of compensation back for Armstead after he posted a career-high and team-best 10 sacks last season.
If the 49ers don’t tag Armstead, it could be a signal for their future plans. In that case they’d either be confident in getting a long-term deal done with Armstead, or they’d be comfortable letting him explore the market as an unrestricted free agent. The legal tampering period is March 16, and the new league year when UFAs would be allowed to sign with new teams is March 18.
There are several offseason dominoes to track for the 49ers, but Armstead will likely be the first and biggest one. Thursday marked the first day that piece could fall down, and now San Francisco is officially on the clock for a potentially franchise-altering decision.
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