Starting Tuesday and lasting through Tuesday, March 5, NFL teams can designate franchise or transition players. Tag candidates include:
🏈LB Josh Allen
🏈RB Saquon Barkley
🏈DE Brian Burns
🏈S Kyle Dugger
🏈WR Tee Higgins
🏈RB Josh Jacobs
🏈CB Jaylon Johnson
🏈DT Justin… pic.twitter.com/nAVdkOut9h— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 18, 2024
The NFL’s franchise tag period is opening up on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and there’s a good chance the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will use it on one of their star players.
Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr. was named a First-Team All-Pro for the 2023 season and there’s no doubt that Tampa Bay wants him back — that’s where the franchise tag comes in. Because deals for quarterback Baker Mayfield and wideout Mike Evans are potentially on the way, Winfield Jr. may have to wait a year before a full extension and play on the tag for 2024.
The franchise tag is an option that every team in the NFL has to give out to one of their players during any given season. The tag ensures that a player hitting free agency will return to the team before free agency begins, giving them a one-year salary that isn’t less than either the average of the top-five salaries at that player’s position or a salary 120% larger than what that player made last year — whichever of those numbers happens to be higher. CBS Sports projects this number to be $16,258,000 for the upcoming season.
Should Winfield Jr. be franchised tagged, he’d play with the Bucs for one more season in 2024 and then would have to delay his contract negotiations to 2025. While Winfield Jr. appears to enjoy his time in Tampa, some players don’t take kindly to the tag due to the insecurity it brings for coming seasons. Bucs fans will find out how he’ll take it if he is even tagged at all in the next few weeks — the deadline for tags ends on March 5.
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