A whole lot will be up for negotiation when the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA expires at the end of the 2020 season, and the players — who it’s become apparent took a tremendous hit in negotiations for the last CBA — should take hard stances on a wide variety of the issues at play.
But there’s one current policy which the union has to insist on eliminating from the game.
The franchise tag.
The tag has become archaic. It enables teams to force high-quality players into having to play out multiple contract years in a sport which possesses no long-term guarantees. It’s bad enough the NFL doesn’t endorse or mandate fully-guaranteed contracts, but the tag is now making it possible for franchises to wait as many as sixth, seven or even eight years before having to commit to a high-quality first-round pick on a long-term second contract.
And in a sport with an average career length of about 3.5 years, that ain’t right.
Guys like Von Miller and Muhammad Wilkerson are dealing with it right now. We’re talking about two of the best front-seven defenders in the NFL, and yet both might be forced to risk their futures this year playing out one-year deals, unable to test the open market despite the fact they’ve each been in the league half a decade.
The tag was adopted when the league implemented free agency, mainly so that teams wouldn’t suddenly lose stars they’d built around. But that was over two decades. It’s time to start allowing all players — even the best ones — to see what free agency feels like before they’re too old and/or mangled to do so.
Nobody likes the franchise tag except cheap, selfish, loaded front offices. Time to scrap it and force teams to deal with their impending free agents without the luxury of having an insurance policy in their back pockets.
