In an offseason full of decisions – good, bad, or not – the smartest move might have come from Cowboys running back Tony Pollard.
Recovering from a broken ankle while the running back market plummeted, Pollard quickly chose to accept his $10.1 million franchise offer, which fully guaranteed his 2023 salary. While it took some of the pressure off him, such as skipping the off-season program to get a long-term contract, given the injury, it’s not like he’d be going anyway. And given the arbitrary mid-July deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign multi-year contracts, there would have been no reason to skip training camp or regular-season games to try to get something he wouldn’t ordinarily achieve could.
That brings us to the two franchise-tagged running backs who haven’t yet accepted their $10.1 million tenders: the Giants’ Saquon Barkley and the Raiders’ Josh Jacobs. By then, their teams could withdraw the tenders and make them free agents.
It’s a rare occurrence, but it’s a device owned by every team that uses the tag. Until accepted, it can be removed.
From the teams’ point of view, they would have to find a replacement either internally or externally. Dalvin Cook could likely be signed for less than $10.1 million, according to Friday’s deal to keep Joe Mixon in Cincinnati.
From the players’ perspective, who would roll out the green carpet for them at this stage of the offseason? Who has the needs, money and leeway to either give them what they are looking for in a long-term contract or what they could get from their current teams with a one-year deal?
This is an important factor for players and their agents to consider as the deadline for signing long-term deals is just two days away. What happens next if they don’t accept the best offer available Monday at 4:00pm ET (and they have the right to decline such an offer)?
As they rant and rant for not showing up for camp or week one, teams could blow up their homes by removing the tags and forcing them to become eleventh-hour free agents and strive for it , to get something as good as they could have gotten by Monday appointment.
The franchise tag is bad for players. It has always been so, it will always be so. But the rules the players collectively agreed on remain in place, and teams aren’t afraid to apply them to the fullest. For the Giants and Raiders, a final move could see one or both of their franchise-designated backlogs contractually checkmated.