Tag Time in NFL: Keeping an Eye on Possibilities with the Dolphins and Around the NFL

The period for NFL teams to apply the franchise tag opened Tuesday, though it's not likely the Miami Dolphins will use it

One of the key dates on the NFL free agency calendar arrived Tuesday with the first day that teams can apply the franchise or transition tag on any of their pending free agents.

As national media analysts project potential franchise tag candidates around the league, we haven't come across one mention of a Miami Dolphins player, nor do we expect to.

Plain and simple, the Dolphins don't have a pending free agent who merits that kind of treatment.

It's different from last year when the Dolphins had a few noteworthy free agents-to-be, such as tight end Mike Gesicki and defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah. As it played out, the Dolphins ended up using the franchise tag on Gesicki and re-signing Ogbah right before the official kickoff of free agency.

Gesicki, though, saw his role diminish in 2022 and it would defy all logic for the Dolphins to once again use the franchise tag on him, particularly since it would cost 120 percent of his tag from last year — or $12.8 million — as a repeat "taggee."

Looking across the 27 pending Dolphins UFAs, there is not one player on the list who meets the typical criteria for tagged players — young, full-time starter whose market value is close to or higher than the price of the tag, which entails a fully guaranteed contract for the upcoming season.

TAG DEFINITIONS AND KEY DATES

-- Exclusive franchise tag: carries a higher (guaranteed) salary, but gives the team exclusive negotiating rights.

-- Non-exclusive franchise tag: carries a lower salary, but other teams can negotiate with the free agent. The original team then can match the offer or receive two first-round picks as compensation.

-- Transition tag: player is free to negotiate with another team, and the original teams has to right to match any offer but does not receive compensation if it declines to match.

-- March 7 is the deadline to apply the franchise or transition tag (limit is one player per team).

-- July 15 is the deadline for team to sign a tagged player to a multi-year contract extension.

2023 FRANCHISE/TRANSITION TAG NUMBERS

Here are the non-exclusive franchise tag numbers for 2023, per spotrac.com:

Quarterbacks — $32.4 million

Running backs — $10 million

Wide receivers — $19.7 million

Tight ends — $11.3 million

Offensive linemen — $18.2 million

Defensive tackles — $18.9 million

Defensive ends — $19.7 million

Linebackers — $20.9 million

Cornerbacks — $18.1 million

Safeties — $14.5 million

Punters/kickers — $5.4 million

THE NAMES TO WATCH FOR NFL TAGS

At the top of the list here easily is Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, whose future has been among the most-discussed topics for a while now.

Among the many potential outcomes regarding Jackson has been the possibility of a tag-and-trade, whereby the Ravens put the exclusive tag on him and then can dictate terms of a deal with any interested other team.

And being that, right or wrong, the Dolphins potentially being a destination for Jackson has been discussed, this is one worth watching.

Other big-name free agents with the possibility of getting tagged include Bills LB Tremaine Edmunds, Bengals S Jessie Bates III, Cowboys RB Tony Pollard, Cowboys TE Dalton Schultz, Jaguars OT Jawaan Taylor, Jaguars TE Evan Engram, Chiefs OT Orlando Brown Jr., Raiders RB Josh Jacobs, Giants RB Saquon Barkley, Giants QB Daniel Jones, Eagles S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Seahawks QB Geno Smith, and Commanders DT Da'Ron Payne.

THE DOLPHINS HISTORY WITH THE FRANCHISE AND TRANSITION TAGS

An important point about the franchise tag is that any team can rescind a tag after it's applied, but not once the player has signed it.

This is important to note as we look back at the Dolphins tagging Gesicki last year.

2022 — TE Mike Gesicki

When the Dolphins tagged Gesicki, there really was no buzz about Tyreek Hill ever being made available in a trade by the Kansas City Chiefs, so having Gesicki remain on the team to complement Jaylen Waddle and others in the passing game made perfect sense.

Once a player is tagged, he basically has no viable option for that upcoming season if no team is willing to part with two first-round picks because it then becomes either a choice of playing for the tagging team or holding out. Gesicki knew full well no team would trade two first-round picks for him and he wasn't going to hold out, so it made sense for him to sign the tag — unless he could have foreseen the kind of scenario that played out with Hill.

For the Dolphins, they ended up paying Gesicki a $10.7 million salary for 2022 even if they didn't use him on offense like a player getting paid that much. Barring a major surprise, he'll leave as an unrestricted free agent this offseason and the Dolphins will get the compensatory pick they would have gotten him had he left last year, just one draft later.

2018 — WR Jarvis Landry

Despite his impressive production, Landry and the Dolphins were ready to turn the page after four seasons, so they put the franchise tag on him and then turned around and traded him to the Cleveland Browns for a fourth-round pick in 2018 and a seventh-round pick in 2019.

The Dolphins turned those picks into Durham Smythe and Myles Gaskin, while Landry got a big contract extension with the Browns that Miami wasn't willing to give him.

Landry wasn't able to match his Miami production in Cleveland and now he's a member of the New Orleans Saints.

2016 — DE Olivier Vernon

This one was interesting,

The Dolphins put the transition tag on Vernon after he had 29 sacks in four years, only to rescind it eight days later after they signed veteran Mario Williams as a free agent. That made Vernon an unrestricted free agent and he signed a five-year, $85 million contract with the New York Giants, for whom he played three seasons before being traded to the Browns.

Vernon remained a very good player after leaving the Dolphins, though he has failed to play a complete season since his first year with the Giants in 2016 and his career might be over since he didn't play the past two seasons after sustaining a torn Achilles tendon late in the 2020 season.

2015 — TE Charles Clay

In 2015, the Dolphins placed the transition tag on Clay, giving them the right to match any offer he received from another team. But Miami declined to do just that when Buffalo came in with a five-year deal worth $38 million.

In retrospect, this was the right call by the Dolphins. Clay had 69 and 58 catches his final two seasons in Miami but never matched those numbers for the Bills or the Arizona Cardinals after moving there and he also never matched his receiving yardage totals of those 2013 and 2014 seasons when he had 759 and 605 yards.

2013 — DT Randy Starks

The Dolphins signed Starks to a five-year deal as an up-and-coming player in 2008 and that move will go down as one of the team's best-ever free agent signing.

After Starks made the Pro Bowl in his fourth and fifth seasons, the Dolphins made sure to hang on to him to putting the franchise tag and then the following year they re-signed him as a UFA. He remained a solid player through his sixth and seventh (and final) seasosn with the Dolphins, though he didn't return to the Pro Bowl.

2011 — DT Paul Soliai

Soliai took some time to develop as a fourth-round pick in the 2007 draft, but by the time he completed his fourth season in 2010, he had become a very, very good interior defensive lineman, so the Dolphins made sure to keep him by putting the franchise tag on him.

Soliai rewarded the Dolphins by turning in a Pro Bowl season in 2011 and Miami re-signed him to a two-year contract the following offseason before Soliai eventually left as a UFA in 2014.

2000 — T Richmond Webb

The ninth overall pick in the 1990 draft, Webb made the Pro Bowl in each of his first six seasons for the Dolphins and they put the franchise tag on him before his final season in Miami.

1994 — DT Tim Bowens

One of the most underappreciated Dolphins players through the years (just ask new Hall of Famer Zach Thomas), Bowens was good enough in his first four seasons that the team put the franchise tag on him and he rewarded them (like Soliai) with a Pro Bowl season.

The Dolphins then signed Bowens to a couple of five-year contracts before his career eventually ended in 2005.

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