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The Cincinnati Bengals have until Tuesday, March 9, to assign the franchise tag if they end up using it on edge-rusher Carl Lawson or cornerback William Jackson.
But that might end up changing too.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the NFL could end up moving the deadline back since there has been nothing official on a finalized salary cap number ahead of the new league year starting on March 17.
We can’t know 100 percent what’s going on behind the scenes at Paul Brown Stadium, but odds are the team wouldn’t mind a little extra time to decide on such a big decision.
While the Bengals would probably like to have both their top pass-rusher and top corner back in the mix, the projected numbers for hitting one of them with the franchise tag is huge.
In a perfect world, the Bengals lock up both premium players so that they can add to the roster around them, not take a step backward and need to replace them atop everything else.
But with a deadline potentially looming, the Bengals are running out of wiggle room to make a decision on a tag.
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