Should the Jaguars Place the Franchise Tag on DJ Chark?
The 2022 franchise tag window has officially opened.
The Jacksonville Jaguars were a surprise franchise tag candidate last offseason, placing the one-year tag on veteran left tackle and former second-round pick Cam Robinson. But could they use the tag for the second year in a row as they continue to have in-house talent set to hit free agency without any contracts in tow?
That is the question facing the Jaguars until the franchise tag window closes on March 8. Until then, the Jaguars will have to review their wide list of free agents -- which consists of mostly offensive players and a number of Week 1 starters -- and determine if the tag is the right choice moving forward.
The players who are among those free agents in terms of priority are clear: Robinson, who is set to be a free agent after his one-year tag, and wide receiver DJ Chark, whose rookie deal ran through the 2021 season.
The Jaguars have other free agents such as guards Andrew Norwell and A.J. Cann and defensive lineman Adam Gotsis, but Robinson and Chark are clearly the top dogs. Each would likely garner the most interest out of any Jaguars free agent set to hit the market, with Robinson having four years of starting experience at left tackle and Chark hitting the 1,000-yard mark on his way to a Pro Bowl in 2019.
As such, the only players who make sense for the Jaguars to consider using the tag on are Chark and Robinson. But should Jacksonville general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson make the bold move to place the tag on either?
In the second of two articles, we take a dive to determine if they should. After looking at Robinson's situation first, we take a look at Chark's next.
Chark has proven to be one of the Jaguars' top playmakers since 2019 and even flashed serious playmaking ability in his rookie campaign in 2018. For a team that needs more playmakers and overall more speed on offense, it seems like losing Chark to free agency would be counter-productive. But that doesn't change the fact that timing plays a serious factor in Chark's free agency.
Simply put, in most cases you do not see a completely new staff re-sign free agents to who they do not have any history with. With that said, this deserves to be looked at from a case-by-case basis. For Chark to become a free agent the same year the Jaguars have overhauled their entire coaching staff is not ideal.
The coaching staff that developed Chark into a Pro Bowler in 2019 is long gone and the staff that spent all of last offseason and regular season with is also gone, with Urban Meyer replaced by Doug Pederson, Darrell Bevell replaced by Press Taylor and Sanjay Lal replaced by Chris Jackson.
Chark has shown his immense physical talents over and over during his Jaguars tenure, but the last two seasons have also been marred by injuries and inconsistencies. Chark didn't have good quarterback play in 2020 as his yards per target and per-game numbers fell off from 2019.
Then in 2021, Chark caught just seven passes in four appearances that really amounted to just three full games. With that said, these went for 154 yards (22.0 yards per catch) and two touchdowns as he was peppered with 22 targets. Then an ankle injury in the fourth game of the season ended Chark's final rookie contract deal.
In short, Chark is a talented player with a lot of potential but with injury concerns and limited production on a year-to-year basis. With OverTheCap projecting for a wide receiver franchise tag to cost $19,127,000, that is a tough pill to swallow in terms of situation meeting cost.
Chark is a talented player, but this is a staff with no past loyalty to him and a front office that wasn't rushing to re-sign him before he was injured last season. It doesn't make much sense for the Jaguars to pay him nearly $20 million if they haven't shown that kind of past belief in him, even if he is a talented player who is more valuable to keep than to let leave.
The Jaguars should work hard to keep Chark in some fashion, but a franchise tag seems like a last-ditch effort that sounds better in theory than in reality. While the Jaguars don't have any shortage of salary cap space, there are still better uses with a deep receiver group in free agency and the draft.
The Jaguars would be smart to keep Chark on a multiple-year contract. Pro Football Focus projects him with a three-year, $40 million ($13.33M per year, $22.5 million total guaranteed) contract and that seems like a better overall gamble for both sides than a one-year audition for nearly the same price overall.
