The Dolphins' Tag History and What Might Happen This Year
The NFL tagging period for 2022 will reach its halfway mark Tuesday and we continue to wait for the first NFL team to make that move this year.
The Miami Dolphins are scheduled to have 20 unrestricted free agent when the new league year kicks off March 16, though they realistically have only two players who might merit that franchise or transition tag this year — defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah and tight end Mike Gesicki.
Ogbah arguably was the Dolphins' second-best defensive player the past two seasons behind only Xavien Howard, while Gesicki has improved every year since arriving as a second-round pick in 2018 and is coming off a 2021 season when he set career highs in receptions and yards.
As is the case with every offseason roster decision, financial considerations could come into play here, with spotrac.com indicating the franchise tag for defensive ends in 2022 likely to land around $17.5 million and the one for tight ends coming in around $11 million.
Based on the current roster and the 2021 season, we have pegged as Ogbah as the most important pending free agent for the Dolphins to keep, though they certainly could end up keeping both with one new contract and the tag on the other.
Or the Dolphins might opt against using the tag at all, which is what they've done the past two offseasons.
And yet another scenario has the Dolphins tagging either of the two players and then trading him to get some instant compensation, as opposed to waiting until the 2023 draft when losing either Ogbah or Gesicki could bring back a compensatory pick based on the NFL's very complicated formula, which includes net gain of qualifying free agent gains and losses along with salary and postseason honors.
And, yes, the Dolphins have executed trades involving pending free agents before, so it would be silly to dismiss that possibility, particularly in light of the team's depth at tight end (pending UFA Durham Smythe, Adam Shaheen, Cethan Carter, 2021 third-round pick Hunter Long) and the notion that Gesicki isn't necessarily a great fit for the 49ers-style offense that Mike McDaniel is expected to bring to Miami.
THE DOLPHINS HISTORY WITH THE TAG
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 Smythe and Myles Gaskin, while Landry got a big contract extension with the Browns that Miami wasn't willing to give him.
Landry hasn't been able to match his Miami production in Cleveland and he's coming off a frustrating injury-plagued season that had him take to Twitter to state his case.
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 he didn't play in 2021 after sustaining a torn Achilles tendon late the previous 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 for 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) season 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, 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 contract eventually ended in 2005.
