ClutchPoints
The Philadelphia Eagles aren’t done celebrating their Super Bowl yet while the Kansas City Chiefs are still licking their wounds from the crushing 40-22 loss. However, the NFL calendar doesn’t stop for either one of them as free agency is right around the corner.
Both the Eagles and the Chiefs have a number of free agents that they will want to keep around, and each of them will have the chance to use the franchise tag on one player to ensure that he sticks around for another season. However, don’t expect either one to utilize that this offseason for various reasons.
“The last Eagles player to receive the franchise tag designation was wide receiver Desean Jackson in 2012,” ESPN’s Tim McManus wrote. “It hasn’t been part of their team-building model, and with six players set to count $12 million or more against the cap in 2025, it’s likely not a practice they’ll adopt now.”
The Eagles have plenty of free agents that they will be focused on re-signing, including star linebacker Zack Baun and Super Bowl hero Josh Sweat. Both will be expensive on the open market, so it’s unlikely that the Eagles will be able to bring them both back. The franchise tag at each of those positions will be pretty expensive if the Eagles choose to use it.
On the Chiefs side, Kansas City is looking at players like Justin Reid, Nick Bolton and Trey Smith as some of their top free agents, but they don’t have much wiggle room either according to ESPN’s Adam Teicher.
“The Chiefs have a lengthy list of free agents they would prefer to retain, but a shortage of cap space makes it unlikely they would place the franchise tag on any of their players,” Teicher wrote. “The Chiefs don’t relish the idea of losing guard Trey Smith, but putting a franchise tag on him at a projected cost of $25 million would wipe out their plans to re-sign others among their potential free agents.”
The Chiefs have already spent a lot of money on the offensive line, so a hefty franchise tag on Smith could be seen as a poor use of financial resources. Kansas City has a lot of holes on the offense at the moment that they need to spend some of that money on, and they don’t have much to use on a tag.
The Eagles will still have plenty of talent coming back even if they don’t retain those free agents, and they have drafted extremely well to replace players who have left in recent years. The Chiefs, on the other hand, will have to start hitting in the draft at a much higher rate in order to keep this dynasty going.
The post NFL rumors: Why Eagles, Chiefs are unlikely to use franchise tag this offseason appeared first on ClutchPoints.
