The franchise tag has been a useful tool for teams to keep their best players in town since its inception back in the 1993 collective bargaining agreement, but the New Orleans Saints have used it sparingly — issuing the tag to just five players since 2004, though it was most recently deployed in 2021. These fully-guaranteed, one-year contracts often buy time for a long-term extension to manifest but the added pressure can damage relationships between players and management.
And the results have been hit-or-miss for New Orleans. Often players who were tagged wound up signing a multiyear deal with the Saints. Sometimes, though, it led to frayed relationships and a swift exodus. Let’s recap each situation now that the NFL’s franchise tag window has opened, even if the Saints lack candidates for it in 2023: