So if it hasn’t happened yet, there’s a good chance that it’s not going to happen. By “it,” I mean that the three players with the franchise tag probably aren’t getting a long-term deal.
That’s unfortunate for Jadeveon Clowney, Grady Jarrett and Robbie Gould. Yes, you read that right – a kicker is going to play the season on the franchise tag. It’s happened before, but I can’t remember a situation where the kicker wanted to be released to sign a new deal with a different team. Gould must really want to go back to the Bears and save the city of Chicago from bad kicking.
Jarrett shouldn’t expect a new deal. The Falcons only have about $6.5 million left in salary cap space, according to OverTheCap, so he probably has to get in line. Julio Jones was promised a new deal and he trusts Arthur Blank to get a deal done. That means the Falcons aren’t going to be throwing money at their talented defensive tackle before they actually pay one of the faces of their franchise.
Clowney could be waiting a while. Is he a Bill O’Brien guy? No one really knows. Clowney does have an injury history but so does J.J. Watt and he got paid. Whitney Mercilus is going to need a new deal after this season. If the Texans are trying to build a system like the Patriots then Clowney will have to go somewhere else to get paid.
The point: None of these guys are getting deals. It’s doubtful any of them will pull a Le’Veon Bell. Once the deadline passes, they can only play under the tag. It looks like that’s the way we are going.
