The NFL’s deadline for teams to apply the franchise or transition tag to one of their pending free agents expired Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET.
The tags provide players with a lucrative one-year salary (calculated by averaging the top-paying deals at their position) but prevent them from reaching unfettered free agency.
The tag deadline often serves as an accelerant to get deals done – Exhibit A being the four-year contract Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys finally reached Monday evening. (Prescott would have been due $37.7 million in 2021 had he been franchised again.) But tags can also be used to simply buy time as a player and team continue negotiating a long-term pact, the deadline for franchised players to do so this year not until July 15.
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Here’s what we know:
Franchise tags applied
Carolina Panthers OT Taylor Moton: The durable right tackle, who’s only 26 and didn’t miss a snap in 2020, remains in Charlotte.
Chicago Bears WR Allen Robinson: He’s been seeking an extension for some time, but Da Bears ain’t letting him out of town this year on the heels of a 102-catch season. He’s now scheduled to rake in $17.9 million this year.
Denver Broncos S Justin Simmons: Tagged for the second consecutive…
