NFL Franchise Tag Explained: Types and Costs

The NFL franchise tag is a mechanism in the league’s collective bargaining agreement that lets a team keep a player who is about to become a free agent for one more year, on a fully guaranteed one-year salary. That salary is set by formula, pegged to what the highest-paid players at the same position earn, so it is always a premium price.

Teams use it to buy time on a star they cannot yet sign long term, or to keep a key player off the open market entirely. Players tend to dislike it because it delays the long-term, heavily guaranteed contract they are chasing. Here is how the three versions work, what they cost, and the deadlines that shape every offseason.

The three types of tag

There are three designations, and they trade off cost against control.

Tag type	Salary formula	Can player negotiate elsewhere?	Compensation if they leave
Exclusive	Average of the top 5 cap figures at the position for the current year	No	Not applicable (player cannot leave)
Non-exclusive	Greater of the top-5 five-year average (as a share of the cap) or 120% of prior salary	Yes, can sign an offer sheet	Two first-round picks if unmatched
Transition	Average of the top 10 salaries at the position	Yes, can sign an offer sheet	None if the team declines to match

The exclusive tag is the tightest leash: the player cannot talk to other teams at all, and the salary is usually the highest of the three because it uses current-year top-five numbers.

The non-exclusive tag is the most common. The player may negotiate an offer sheet with another team, but the original club can match it, and if it declines to match, it receives two first-round picks as compensation. That steep price makes rival offers rare.

The transition tag is cheaper but weaker: the original team gets a right of first refusal but no draft-pick compensation if it lets the player walk. Because of that, teams use it far less often.

What the tag costs

The dollar figure changes every year because it is tied to positional salaries and the league salary cap, both of which climb annually. As a rule, the most expensive tags belong to quarterbacks, whose franchise number has run north of $30 million in recent seasons, while lower-salaried positions come in at a fraction of that. Because the exact numbers are recalculated each offseason, treat any single figure as a snapshot rather than a fixed rule.

Freshness note (as of 2026): The tag values shift every year with the salary cap, so verify the current-season figure for a specific position against the latest league numbers before quoting it. What stays constant is the method: the top-five (or top-ten, for the transition tag) positional average.

The deadlines that matter

Two dates drive the whole process:

• The designation window. Teams apply the franchise or transition tag during a roughly two-week window in the weeks before free agency opens, typically from mid-February into early March.
• The extension deadline. Once tagged, a player and team have until a mid-July cutoff, historically about July 15, to sign a multi-year deal. Miss it and the player is locked into the one-year tag for that season, with long-term talks frozen until the next year.

That July deadline is why you see a burst of contract news right before it every summer, as teams race to convert a tag into a lasting deal.

Why players resent it

On paper the tag pays a top-of-market one-year salary, fully guaranteed once signed. So why the frustration? A few reasons:

• It is only one year of security. A serious injury on the tag can wipe out the life-changing multi-year, guaranteed contract the player wanted.
• It delays free agency, the one time players get to set their own market with multiple bidders.
• It can be applied repeatedly, and while the cost escalates, a team can still control a player for years without committing to a long-term deal.

That tension, guaranteed money now versus long-term security and freedom, is the heart of most tag standoffs.

Holdouts, tenders and how standoffs play out

Once a player is tagged, the team sends a one-year tender. Until the player signs it, they are not under contract, so they earn nothing and are not obligated to attend offseason work or training camp. Some tagged players use this leverage by holding out, skipping camp to pressure the team toward a long-term deal before the July extension deadline. Others sign the tender early to lock in the guaranteed salary and remove injury risk. Because a signed tag is fully guaranteed, most standoffs end with the player either signing the tender or agreeing to a multi-year contract, rather than sitting out an entire season, which would cost them a full year of pay and service time.

Teams also retain some flexibility: a franchise tag can be rescinded before the player signs it, which frees the player to become an unrestricted free agent but also removes the team’s control. That option is rarely used, since applying the tag in the first place signals the team wants to keep the player.

Where the tag fits in team building

The franchise tag is one lever inside the larger machine of roster construction, which is governed by the salary cap. Understanding the NFL salary cap explained shows why a big one-year tag hit can squeeze the rest of a roster, and why teams often prefer a longer deal that spreads the money out. Quarterbacks are the priciest tags for the same reason they anchor contenders; see the most Super Bowl wins by quarterback for how much rides on keeping the position locked down.

If you follow the sport through fantasy as well, the same player-valuation instincts show up in what ADP means in fantasy football. The short version of the tag: one guaranteed year, a top-of-position price, and a July deadline that decides whether it becomes a long-term marriage.