What is the Franchise Tag?

A contractual tool in the NFL that allows teams to keep a pending unrestricted free agent on the team for an additional year. Teams are allowed to place a Franchise Tag on only one player per year, which provides the player with a guaranteed contract with a salary similar to the salaries of the top 5 in the NFL for that position. The purpose of the Franchise Tag is to allow teams to protect their most important assets from simply leaving the team upon free agency, which is beneficial for small market teams who often see big name players move to big city franchises.

In 2013, the cost to franchise tag a player was: