Will Falcons Use Franchise Tag? Why It's Unlikely

The NFL calendar opened the window for teams to begin using the franchise tag on players Tuesday, but don't expect the Atlanta Falcons to join in on the fun.

Between voided salaries and unrestricted free agents, the Falcons have 22 players expected to hit the market with no direct attachment to the organization.

That number includes several starters, such as center Drew Dalman, outside linebacker Matthew Judon, safety Justin Simmons and cornerback Mike Hughes.

Atlanta is currently one of just five teams above the salary cap, even with the league announcing Wednesday it will expand the cap number this spring. As such, the Falcons don't have much money to throw around if they get into contractual warfare with other teams.

The franchise tag serves as a war-ending tactic for the team with the most recent contractual rights to the player. The Falcons shouldn't be using it this spring.

Dalman is Atlanta's biggest free agent. He's been rated as a top-40 available player by multiple outlets, and while Spotrac projects his deal to be just $6.8 million annually, he's likely to get at least $10 million -- after all, quality centers don't merely grow on trees.

But due to offensive linemen being grouped together, the price of Dalman's franchise tag is $25.8 million, according to OverTheCap -- it's an all-encompassing tag heavily swayed by the lofty contracts given to premier offensive tackles.

The numbers don't get much better for Judon or Simmons. Regardless of whether Judon is considered a defensive end ($25.36 million) or linebacker ($27.7 million), it's too pricy. The same applies for Simmons at $20.1 million.

Market value for Judon is $4.2 million, while the number is $5.8 million for Simmons, according to Spotrac.

Speaking at his end-of-year press conference Jan. 9, Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot expressed dissatisfaction in the mid-August additions of Judon and Simmons.

"When you add players at that point in their career -- for us to make those decisions, we're saying, 'Okay, we're in position to win the division and to make a run in the playoffs,'" Fontenot said. "And the fact that we're not in the playoffs, then we're not happy with the result of those decisions. That's just natural.

"When you make those decisions, we believe that's going to be a tipping point for us, and it wasn't."

And the solution for getting them right isn't to shell out sizable money for a one-year return -- especially when the results alone put any sort of reunion into question.