Tag Time Looms and the Dolphins History with Tagging

Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland (8) enters the field before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Hard Rock Stadium. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

A big date on the NFL calendar arrives next week when NFL teams can start using the franchise or transition tag on a pending unrestricted free agent.

The tagging period will last through March 4, eight days before the start of the 2025 league year, which also is the start of the free agent signing period and trades are allowed.

Several teams around the league have players who make for good candidates to get tagged, and for the Miami Dolphins, that player is safety Jevon Holland.

A second-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, Holland recently finished his fourth season with the Dolphins but could only watch as several teammates landed big contracts last spring and summer before he played out the final year of his rookie deal.

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A LITTLE DEJA VU FOR THE DOLPHINS

The Dolphins find themselves in a similar situation as they faced last year at this time with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, having to decide what to do with a former early-round draft pick who performed well for the team despite not being selected to a Pro Bowl and will be one of the most coveted free agents at his position should he hit the open market.

The Dolphins eventually declined to use either the franchise or transition tag on Wilkins last year, and he ended up signing a massive contract with the Las Vegas Raiders. The decision to let Wilkins leave was based on a combination of financial restraint, salary cap constraints and positional value.

All those factors very well might apply again this year and lead to a similar decision with Holland, though Pro Football Focus included him among its list of tag candidates for 2025.

While the final numbers aren't out yet, it's expected to cost of the franchise tag for safeties will be $19.6 million, with the transition tag coming in at $15.6 million. A team has the opportunity to match any offer in either case, but declining to match an offer sheet for a player with a franchise tag nets the team two first-round picks while there's no compensation for declining to match an offer sheet to a player on a transition tag.

Interestingly, the only player to receive a transition tag last offseason was a safety, Kyle Dugger, and he ended up re-signing with the New England Patriots.

Applying a tag immediately puts that amount on the salary cap, which is significant for the Dolphins considering they're already some $12 million over the cap limit and will need to become compliant by March 12. A tag also can be rescinded before it's signed by the player.

The Dolphins have used a tag — franchise or transition — nine times since free agency began in full swing around the NFL in 1993, and it'll be interesting to see if Holland will become number 10.

If the Dolphins don't tag Holland and he leaves via free agency, they could earn a compensatory pick in 2026, but that would depend on several factors.

THE DOLPHINS HISTORY WITH THE TAG

2022 — TE Mike Gesicki

About a month after Mike McDaniel was hired as head coach, the Dolphins made the decision to place a non-exclusive franchise tag on Gesicki. It made sense at the time given how McDaniel's former team, the 49ers made such full use of tight end George Kittle — even if Kittle is a rare talent at the position.

Gesicki signed the tag six days later, and that was followed shortly after by the Dolphins trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill, which kind of changed the whole outlook of the offense.

With the Dolphins now having speed all over the place on offense, Gesicki became an afterthought in the passing game and it's pretty safe to suggest they would have rescinded the tag had Gesicki not already signed it.

Gesicki ended up leaving for New England as a free agent the next offseason.

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, in part because he kept getting sidetracked by injuries.

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 failed to play a complete season after his first year with the Giants in 2016 and his career basically ended when he tore an Achilles tendon late 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 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) seasons 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.

2001 — DE Jason Taylor

The Dolphins had no intention of letting Taylor go anywhere after he earned All-Pro recognition for the first time in 2000, so they slapped the franchise tag on him to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.

And then they replaced the one-year tag with a long-term contract and Taylor wound up playing for the Dolphins through the 2011 season, with one-year stops in Washington in 2008 and with the New York Jets in 2010.

2000 — T Richmond Webb

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

Webb eventually left to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals as a UFA in 2001 and he finished out his career with 20 starts for them before signing a one-day contract in 2005 to officially retire as a member of the Dolphins.

1998 — 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 career eventually ended in 2005.