Cardinals Skip Franchise Tag; Marquise Brown Hits Free Agency
ARIZONA -- As expected, the NFL's franchise tag deadline has come and gone with no noise from the Arizona Cardinals.
The deadline - which was 2:00 PM Arizona time today on March 5 - has officially passed with no players receiving the tag from the Cardinals.
To be perfectly honest, this was expected, as the team saw no pending departures worthy of utilizing the tag on as the rebuild in the desert continues.
Wide receiver Marquise Brown is the biggest name Arizona will see depart into free agency, and if any player would have received the franchise tag from general manager Monti Ossenfort, it would have been Brown.
However, the Cardinals are willing to allow Brown to test the free agency waters before committing to him financially after struggles with health and production while in Arizona.
The team reportedly held negotiations with Brown through the season but nothing came to fruition.
The 26-year-old receiver is projected to receive a one-year, $12 million deal according to PFF's calculations while Spotrac has Hollywood's market value at an estimated $14.8 million.
Using the franchise tag on Brown would have cost the Cardinals $21.8 million while the transition tag would have been $19.7 million.
While Arizona opted not to use the tag, plenty of other teams around the league did:
NFL Teams Who Used Franchise Tag
- New England Patriots: Kyle Dugger (transition tag)
- Chicago Bears: Jaylon Johnson
- Jacksonville Jaguars: Josh Allen
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Antoine Winfield Jr.
- Baltimore Ravens: Justin Madubuike
- Carolina Panthers: Brian Burns (non-exclusive)
- Cincinnati Bengals: Tee Higgins (non-exclusive)
- Kansas City Chiefs: L'Jarius Sneed (non-exclusive)
- Indianapolis Colts: Michael Pittman Jr.
Notable players that weren't tagged despite being heavy candidates were New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley and Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.
