The NFL’s franchise tag deadline has officially come and gone.
For the first time since 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs have not used the franchise tag. The Chiefs were not expected to use the franchise tag this year as they didn’t have any clear uses for it. It also didn’t help that the team is still at least $20 million over the projected salary cap floor for the 2021 NFL season.
In the past, Chiefs GM Brett Veach has used the franchise tag as a tool to extend negotiations on a long-term deal ahead of free agency. Last season, Veach used this method with DT Chris Jones. The Chiefs didn’t have any players this year who make sense for this option, though.
The team also didn’t have any players who made sense as tag-and-trade candidates. They used that method with LB Dee Ford back in 2019. It worked out splendidly for them, while not so great for the 49ers, who traded for Ford and signed him to an extension.
They also didn’t have any players worth keeping on the franchise tag’s one-price-fits-all system. Sure they have players set to become free agents that they’d like to keep, but applying the tag to say, a player like Daniel Sorensen, would be far too expensive.
The franchise tag could be back on the table for the Chiefs as early as 2022. Players like Tyrann Mathieu, Eric Fisher, Mitchell Schwartz and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif are set to become free agents that year and all could be deserving of the franchise tag, depending upon what happens during their 2021 seasons.
For a full list of players who were tagged by their respective teams this year, visit our friends over at Touchdown Wire.
