In their quest to iron out a new CBA before the start of the 2020 league year on March 18, the NFL Players Association and the NFL made a decision to move the dates to use franchise and transition tags back two days. The current CBA expires at the end of the 2020 season.
Teams were previously able to place a tag on a player starting February 25, but because of the rules regarding tags and the CBA, they moved the dates back to try and avoid confusion with the rules surrounding those tags. Teams can generally only use either one of the franchise or transition tag, but they’re allowed to use both if they enter the 2020 season with no CBA in place for 2021 and beyond.
While the two tag rule quirk doesn’t impact the 49ers, the dates moving back gives them a couple additional days to make a decision on defensive lineman Arik Armstead.
He’s due to hit unrestricted free agency when the new league year opens, and hammering out a long-term deal may not be feasible for the 49ers as they try to navigate a tight salary cap situation.
Armstead said he’s open to staying in San Francisco, even if it is on the one-year, fully guaranteed franchise tag. Players typically prefer more long-term security to the one-year tag. General manager John Lynch said in his post-season press conference that everything is on the table with Armstead, who led the team with a career-high 10 sacks last season.
There’s also a scenario where the 49ers decide not to tag Armstead, which would cost around $18 million, and let him test free agency instead. Letting the team’s sack leader go a year after he had his best season as a pro isn’t something the team wants to do, but with extensions coming up for tight end George Kittle and defensive lineman DeForest Buckner, they may not have much of a choice.
The two extra days probably won’t change the 49ers’ decision-making process very much, but it does give them 48 additional hours to try and do the necessary gymnastics to get him signed long term. This is the 49ers’ biggest offseason decision, so getting more time to make it can’t hurt.
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