NFL Franchise Tag Season Is Here. What You Need to Know.

The NFL franchise tag window is open and teams have until March 3 at 4 PM ET to lock up their pending free agents before the new league year begins.

So far the only player tagged is Kyle Pitts, who the Atlanta Falcons have placed the franchise tag on at the tight end rate of approximately $16 million for the 2026 season.

The tag is essentially a team’s safety net. If you have a player hitting free agency that you are not ready to lose but have not been able to lock up long-term, the franchise tag buys you another year to either get a deal done or work out a trade.

Teams can only use it once per offseason and there are three versions of it, exclusive, non-exclusive, and transition, each with slightly different rules around what the player can and cannot do in terms of negotiating with other teams.

The non-exclusive tag is the most commonly used. Here is what those salaries are projected to look like for 2026 based on Spotrac’s estimations:

Franchise Tag Estimations by Position:

• Quarterback: $47,242,000
• Running back: $14,186,000
• Wide receiver: $28,037,000
• Tight end: $16,007,000
• Offensive lineman: $27,764,000
• Linebacker: $27,559,000
• Defensive tackle: $27,424,000
• Defensive end: $26,710,000
• Cornerback: $20,783,000
• Safety: $20,758,000
• Kicker or Punter: $6,846,000

The names worth watching between now and the March 3 deadline include Breece Hall in New York, Travis Etienne in Jacksonville, George Pickens in Dallas, Odafe Oweh in Los Angeles, and Daniel Jones in Indianapolis.

Any of those guys could get tagged depending on how their respective teams want to handle their roster situations heading into the offseason.

The deadline is March 3. Things will move fast between now and then.

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