Feb 2, 2026; San Francisco, CA, USA; Dallas Cowboys receiver George Pickens during NFC practice at the NFL Flag Fieldhouse at Moscone Center South Building. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
The window for NFL teams to utilize the franchise and transition tag opens Tuesday.
The transaction in place for teams to retain their own free agents can be applied through March 3 at 4 p.m. ET.
There’s rarely a race to apply the tag as general managers and agents use the formal meeting settings around the NFL Scouting Combine to exchange expectations and, in many cases, find a middle ground to move forward in negotiations toward a long-term deal.
In some cases, that won’t happen.
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens is projected to be tagged, but Seahawks general manager John Schneider seems less likely to use Seattle’s to keep running back Kenneth Walker III.
A non-exclusive franchise tag guarantees a player a one-year salary calculated at the average of the top five salaries over the past five seasons at that player’s position. Because it is “non-exclusive,” a player can still meet with and negotiate a deal with any other team. However, the original team holds refusal rights and can match incoming offers to that player or choose to receive two first-round picks as compensation from the suitor.
There is an “exclusive” franchise tag. The differences are in salary — the top five salaries at the player’s position for the current year or 120 percent of the player’s previous-year salary — and prohibited negotiations with other teams.
Walker, MVP of Super Bowl LX, could become a candidate for the transition tag. The one-year tender offer for the average of the top 10 salaries at the position — gives the current team some semblance of leverage with refusal rights. A team can match incoming offers to the tagged player while lowering the initial potential terms of the one-year contract. However, this tag prevents the club from receiving draft compensation if it elects to not match another team’s offer.
Franchise tag values vary greatly by position value and market, but also take into account the annual salary-cap adjustment. The NFL salary cap has not officially been set.
Two players were tagged in 2025 and wound up signing long-term contracts before the NFL’s July 15 deadline to replace the franchise tag tender with a multi-year deal.
Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (four years, $115 million) and Chiefs guard Trey Smith (four years, $94 million) were locked up by the teams that drafted them before the 2025 season began.
Seattle has a projected $63 million in cap space but Schneider was mindful of coming negotiations with future free agents when discussing spending prior to Super Bowl LX.
The Cowboys acquired Pickens from the Pittsburgh Steelers prior to the final year of his four-year, $6.7 million rookie contract. Pickens is projected to rake in approximately $28 million in 2026 based on franchise tag projections.
That’s about double the going rate for franchise-tagging a running back. Based on 2025 salaries, the running back non-exclusive tag would pay in the neighborhood of $14.1 million on a one-year deal.
–Field Level Media
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