Franchise Tags and Transition Tags: How They Work

By 4Football Staff · September 27, 2026 · 9 min read

A team can tag a player whose contract is expiring and keep him for one more year. Learn the difference between the exclusive, non-exclusive and transition tags, how pay is set, and the key deadlines.

It is late winter, a star player's contract is about to expire, and the team and the player have not agreed on a new one. Free agency is days away. If nothing changes, he walks into the open market and the team gets nothing for him except maybe a compensatory pick down the road. Then the team announces that it is using the franchise tag, and the story changes: he is not free, he is not under a long-term deal, and he has not been traded. He is under a one-year contract at a price set by formula.

The tag is one of the most misunderstood tools in the National Football League (NFL). It is not a punishment and it is not a long-term contract. It is a way for a team to keep a player's rights for another season while the two sides keep talking, and in return the player is paid a salary that is usually much higher than his previous one.

This article explains the three kinds of tag, how the salary is set, what the player and the team can and cannot do, the key deadlines, and how the tag fits with the rest of the system. The details come from the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and have changed from one agreement to the next. We describe how the rules have worked in recent years and tell you where to confirm the current version. We do not list tag amounts, which change every year.

What a tag does

A tag applies to a player whose contract is about to expire and who would otherwise become an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with any team. For the free agent classes, see NFL Free Agency Explained. Before free agency opens, the team may designate him with a tag. The tag does three things:

1. It prevents the player from reaching the open market in the ordinary way.
2. It offers him a one-year tender, which is a contract for the coming season at a price set by the CBA's formulas.
3. It limits what other teams can do, depending on the kind of tag.

The player is not required to like it. He can negotiate a long-term deal with the team, or he can sign the one-year tender, or he can hold out. What he cannot do under an ordinary franchise tag is sign with a team that is not his own without that team's consent, except in the specific case of the non-exclusive tag described below.

The three kinds of tag

The pay formulas have long been written in the CBA, and the actual dollar amounts are announced each year after the league calculates them. We will explain what each tag means in practice.

The exclusive franchise tag

Under the exclusive tag, the player cannot negotiate with any other team. The team has exclusive control of his rights. In exchange, the salary is the highest of the three, tied to the current-year top salaries at his position. It is the tag that teams use when they want to be sure the player stays, and it is the most costly.

The non-exclusive franchise tag

This is the version most people mean when they say "franchise tag." The player can negotiate with other teams. If he finds a contract he likes, he signs an offer sheet, and the original team then has a short period to match it. If the team matches, the player stays on those terms. If it does not, the player goes to the new team and the original team receives two first-round draft picks from the new team as compensation.

That price is so high that offer sheets for tagged players are rare. The compensation protects the original team without forcing it to pay as much as the exclusive tag, which is why the non-exclusive version is the common choice.

The transition tag

The transition tag is a cheaper cousin. The salary is the average of the top ten salaries at the position, so it is usually lower than a franchise amount. A player with this tag can get offers from other teams, and the original team can match them. But if it declines to match, it receives no draft pick. It is a way of keeping the right to match without paying the price of a franchise tag, and because there is no compensation, it is used less often.

How the salary is set

The tender is a one-year contract, and the price is a formula in the CBA. In general terms:

• It depends on the position. The formula looks at what the highest-paid players at the player's position are making. A quarterback's tag is not the same as a kicker's.
• It is a high number. The tag amount reflects the top of the market at the position, so the player is paid close to the top level of the position for the year.
• It has a floor tied to his old pay. The CBA also says that the tag cannot be below a stated raise over the player's previous salary.
• Repeated tags cost more. If a team uses the franchise tag on the same player a second consecutive year, the amount rises. A third consecutive tag costs much more still. The increases are written to make repeated tagging unattractive, so check the CBA for the exact percentages.

When the player signs the tender, the one-year salary is guaranteed. That is a significant protection for the player, who otherwise has to worry about being released.

Which position is the player?

The tag's price depends on the position, which creates a recurring question: what position is a player who lines up in several places? The CBA generally assigns a position by where the player took the most snaps in the previous season, and the exact test is spelled out in the agreement. Disputes happen. In a widely known 2014 case, a tight end who spent much of his time lined up as a receiver was tagged as a tight end by his team, argued that he should be paid as a wide receiver, and lost the argument in front of an arbitrator. The case is remembered because the gap between the two positions' tag amounts was large.

This is a reason that teams care about listed positions, and a reason that tags are not always simple.

The calendar

Several dates matter, and each is set by the league and can shift from year to year.

1. The tag window. It opens in late winter and lasts a couple of weeks, ending shortly before the free agency period starts in March. A team must name a tagged player in that window.
2. The tender. After a player is tagged, the team formally offers him the one-year contract. For a non-exclusive tag, the amount is set by the formula. The player may sign it right away or wait.
3. The long-term deadline. There is a deadline in the middle of July. Up to that date, the team and player can sign a multi-year deal. After it, the player may only sign a one-year contract for that season; the team cannot extend him until the season ends.
4. Signing the tender. A player who signs the tender in the preseason or in the regular season can play. If a player does not sign, he cannot play. He can sign it any time up to a point in the season set by the league.

The July deadline is the reason tag stories get interesting in the summer: both sides know that after the deadline the long-term negotiation is over for the year.

What a tag does to the cap

The tender counts against the team's salary cap. A franchise amount is a large number, and it is spent on one player. A team that uses a tag has to plan the cap around it, and when the tag is replaced by a long-term deal, the cap hit usually falls because the new contract can spread a bonus across several seasons. For how that works, see The Salary Cap Explained.

Why teams use it and why players dislike it

For the team

• Time. It adds up to a season to negotiate, which is often the difference between keeping and losing a core player.
• Control. The player cannot leave. Even a non-exclusive tag is protected by the draft-pick compensation.
• Trade value. A tagged player can be traded. A team can tag a player it does not plan to keep, then trade him to a team that will sign him to a long-term deal. This is sometimes called a tag-and-trade.

For the player

• Money. The tender is a high salary, and it is guaranteed.
• Uncertainty. He has no long-term security, and a bad injury could change his future. That is why some players prefer a long-term deal at a lower annual figure.
• Lost leverage. He has no access to the open market and may play at the same team that could not come to terms.
• Cost of a holdout. A player who refuses to sign can lose pay and practice time.

A hypothetical

Say a team has a starting pass rusher whose contract expires, and the team would like to keep him but they disagree on the long-term price. The team applies the franchise tag. He is now under a one-year contract. He and the team talk through the spring and summer. Three things can happen:

• They agree to a multi-year contract before the July deadline. The tag amount disappears and the new contract's cap hit takes its place.
• They do not agree. He plays under the tender for one year (or sits out), and the team has to decide on a tag again the next spring. A second tag will be more expensive.
• The team trades him. A new team gets the right to negotiate with him and pays for the privilege.

Each result is common.

Common misunderstandings

"The tag is a contract." It is an offer of a one-year contract, and the player has to sign it.

"A tagged player cannot be traded." He can be.

"The tag always means the team wants to keep him forever." Often it is a way to buy time, and sometimes it is a way to get trade value.

"All tags cost the same." They depend on the position and the kind of tag.

"A team can tag anyone." It can tag only a player whose contract is expiring and who would otherwise be a free agent, and each team can use a limited number of tags in a year. The number allowed has been set by the CBA, so check the current agreement.

Where to follow it

When a player is tagged, his team page and player page will show the status. See the teams and players pages. For the calendar around the tag window, see The NFL Offseason Calendar, Month by Month.

A tagged player who is hurt during the tender year draws extra attention, because the one-year salary becomes guaranteed once he signs it. The injuries page is where to watch for that.

The short version

• A tag keeps a player with an expiring contract from free agency for one year at a formula price.
• Exclusive means no outside talks, non-exclusive allows offer sheets with two first-round picks as compensation, and transition allows offer sheets with no compensation.
• Pay is set by CBA formulas tied to the top salaries at the player's position, and repeated tags cost more.
• A mid-July deadline separates long-term negotiations from a one-year deal.
• The tender is guaranteed once signed, counts on the cap, and the player can be traded.
• Rules and amounts change with each CBA and each year, so check the current agreement.