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Feb. 22 is an important date on the NFL calendar: teams may now issue the franchise tag to eligible players, keeping them under contract through the 2022 season. They have until March 8 to reach a decision on whether or not they’ll use the tag.
And that includes the New Orleans Saints, who must decide whether they’ll use the franchise tag again on free safety Marcus Williams. Williams had another excellent season in 2021 while playing on the tag, valued at $10.612 million — if the Saints choose to deploy it again, they’ll owe him a fully-guaranteed $12.911 million.
It isn’t a big jump in price (a different of just $2.299 million, or a 122% increase) but it would be a tough hurdle to navigate. Franchise tag figures can’t be restructured or reduced if the team and player don’t reach a long-term extension by midsummer (last year’s deadline was July 15). That’s what happened last year, when the Saints had that $10.612 million cap hit weighing them down. By season’s end they were restructuring almost every player making more than minimum salary just to fill out their roster.
So while it wouldn’t be ideal to see Williams play on the tag again this year, issuing it in the first place still may be the team’s best move. Hopefully the Saints can meet with Williams’ representatives at the NFL Scouting Combine next week to negotiate an extension instead — a lot of deals get cut in private dining rooms at Indianapolis steakhouses. But if they haven’t agreed to terms this late in the process, it feels unlikely they’ll get there now. Using the tag to buy more time to talk about a lucrative contract with one of their best players makes sense. If Williams tests free agency, teams will be lining up to sign him.
There really aren’t many tag candidates for New Orleans beyond Williams. Left tackle Terron Armstead is going to be one of the top free agents available this offseason, but he isn’t eligible to receive the tag. Because the Saints restructured his last contract with void years that won’t trigger until the start of the new league year on March 16, a week after the franchise tag application cutoff date, he isn’t an option. He’ll technically still be under contract when the franchise tag window closes on March 8.
That doesn’t feel like a clerical oversight from the Saints and salary cap specialist Khai Harley; if anything, it’s likely a concession to Armstead to ensure he’ll get his money in free agency. New Orleans could have scheduled the void years to trigger earlier (as other teams have done) and keep the tag in play for them and Armstead, but instead he’ll have an opportunity to seek the best possible contract. That could very well be with the Saints, but it just doesn’t feel realistic given how many needy teams have cash to spend.
So to recap: here are the relevant dates and deadlines to know for the Saints and the franchise tag:
- Feb. 22: Franchise tag application window opens
- March 8: Franchise tag application window closes
- July 15: Deadline to sign franchise tagged players to extensions
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