Tag Day Carries Intrigue for Bears

On Tuesday, teams can begin applying franchise tags.

There's likely to be no rush as they have until March 7 to get it done, and taking as much time as possible allows for chances negotiations could break the right way so they can avoid this all together.

Tag day will mean something different for the Bears than in past years. When last they had tag concerns, they were applying it to wide receiver Allen Robinson. Now they are among the group of buyers hoping players slip past the tag to enter free agency.

The concern for the Bears in this regard involves tackle, both on the offensive and defensive sides. They need right tackle help on offense. They need both a one-technique and three-technique tackle on defense. Even if they draft Jalen Carter on defense, they need these parts because the goal in this scheme is multiple rush men to keep everyone fresh.

Here's where the tag impacts their needs at those positions:

Offensive Tackle

The tag situation here is Kaleb McGary. The Atlanta Falcons right tackle, is the best choice to watch. The Bears fit would be good here because McGary is among the best run-blocking right tackles in the league and in a wide-zone scheme like the one used in Chicago. Pro Football Focus ranks him as the second-best run blocker at tackle for 2022.

McGary is rated among the bottom half of the league's tackles as a pass blocker, but the free agency market is short on tackles who rank both as a top pass blocker and run blocker.

So the Bears need to hope McGary goes untagged and it appears he will. The tag will cost the Falcons $18.244 million. Although they have the second-most cap space available after the Bears, they already have a big chunk devoted to left tackle Jake Matthews and also have a contract coming up for guard Chris Lindstrom, the No. 1 rated guard in the entire league by PFF.

Mike McGlinchey could be a free agent alternative at right tackle and he's not likely to get tagged by the 49ers. His inability to block Haason Reddick on one play in particular during the NFC Championship Game brought him some ridicule but over the course of his career McGlinchey has been a strong run blocker and PFF rates him slightly below McGary as a pass blocker, with neither being exceptionally good.

Perhaps a better situation for the Bears involves another player who could get tagged and that is Kansas City's Orlando Brown Jr. It's possible Brown gets tagged by the Chiefs for a second straight year, although winning a Super Bowl can tend to diminish a player's demands. And in Chicago, the Bears might want Brown to play right tackle because Braxton Jones had a relatively strong rookie year at left tackle but hasn't played right side before. Brown has stressed in the past he wants to play left side even though the right side was where he started his career.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid held a postseason press conference Tuesday and told reporters he thought a strong effort would be made to keep both tackles but Brown will be quite a bit more difficult to retain for the Chiefs because of his cost.

Defensive Tackle

The tag to watch for is Washington's Daron Payne. He has been good but not dominant for the first four years of his career and in his fifth year made that step up elite level with highs of 11 1/2 sacks and 18 tackles for loss.

The attraction for the Bears with Payne is he is more of a one-technique who can play three-technique. With Justin Jones already at three-technique, and the likelihood high the position will be addressed early in the draft, the Bears could have an ideal piece in the Commanders' defensive tackle.

It all depends on whether Washington tags him and unlike Atlanta in the offensive tackle situation, the Commanders are not in position to throw tags around with ease. The Commanders are only $4.8 million under the cap according to Overthecap.com.

Teams obviously have ways to get under the cap with restructures and also by cutting players. Washington could go both routes.

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