In 2021, the Buffalo Bills are not going to use the franchise tag. At the end of the season, Bills general manager Brandon Beane essentially said never say never… but it just wasn’t going to ever happen.
On Tuesday, the Bills reworked center Mitch Morse’s contract to find $2 million more in cap space. Per Spotrac, that move gives the Bills approximately $6.6M in cap space if the upcoming salary cap in the NFL is set at $185M.
The most-likely candidate for the tag this offseason was linebacker Matt Milano. According to Over The Cap, that tag would have cost Buffalo $15.7M.
Beane says maybe but the logic says no.
During his tenure as GM, Beane has yet to use to franchise tag. But in the history of the franchise tag which dates back to 1993, it hasn’t happened much for the Bills, in general.
For those curious, here are the five times the Bills used the franchise tag in team history: