At the start of the 2017 season, the Cincinnati Bengals and tight end Tyler Eifert could not reach an agreement on a contract extension.

Saturday was the soft deadline the club imposes to get extensions done, and Eifert will be slated to become an unrestricted free agent in 2018.

Should Eifert get to that point he could command top dollar as, when healthy, the premier player at his position under the age of 30. The salary cap has jumped $10 million or more every season since 2014.

That said, multiple league sources informed The Enquirer over the past three months that should Eifert turn in a campaign similar to that of his Pro Bowl effort in 2015, the Bengals would not be opposed to using the franchise tag on Eifert.

Eifert, 27, is making $4.782 million this year under the fifth-year option.

The 2018 franchise tag for a tight end will likely settle in at, or just under, $10 million depending on how much the salary cap rises. The tag number for the position this year was $9.78 million, a raise of over $660,000 from the year before.

Should that happen, it would make Eifert nearly the highest paid tight end in football in terms of single-year annual value.

Seattle’s Jimmy Graham – the last tight end to be franchise tagged in 2014 – makes $10 million annually but is set to hit the free agent market next year at 31 years old.

Two of Eifert’s 2011 draft classmates, Kansas City’s Travis Kelce ($9.368) and Washington’s Jordan Reed ($9.35), are No. 2 and No. 3 in terms of highest annual value for the position with extensions they signed a year ago.

The only other tight ends to be franchise tagged since the new collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2011 has been Jacksonville's Marcedes Lewis in 2011 and Washington’s Fred Davis in 2012.

The Bengals last used the franchise tag in 2013, on defensive end Michael Johnson.

Another option for the club regarding Eifert could be a transition tag, which in 2017 settled at $7.713 million for tight ends. That would allow another team to sign him to an offer sheet, but it would allow the Bengals to match it.