Franchise Tag Season Begins

- With the NFL Scouting Combine set to begin in just a few days, league business has begun to pick up. And the first piece of that business after a two-week NFL dark period is the beginning of the two-week period where teams can tag their players.

- In 2012, a record 21 NFL teams used the franchise tag to keep their top players in place. That was up for the previous record of 14. It isn’t likely that number will be approached again this year but there are plenty of players out there deserving of the tag that teams will want to keep.

- Although the official tag numbers have not been made official because the league has yet to make the cap number for this year official, some preliminary numbers have been distributed. Here’s a look at what it would cost to use the franchise or even the lesser used transition tag in 2013:

2013 Franchise and Transition Numbers (Projected)

CB: Franchise: $10.668         Transition: $8.939

DE: Franchise: $10.984         Transition: $8.994

DT: Franchise: $8.306           Transition: $6.919

K/P: Franchise: $2.926         Transition: $2.654

LB: Franchise: $9.455           Transition: $8.216

OL: Franchise: $9.660           Transition: $8.560

QB: Franchise: $14.642         Transition: $12.845

RB: Franchise: $8.079           Transition: $6.851

S: Franchise: $6.798             Transition: $5.899

TE: Franchise: $5.962            Transition: $5.105

WR: Franchise: $10.357        Transition: $8.716

- The salary cap is expected to be in the ballpark of $121 million.

- The franchise tag has two designations – exclusive and non-exclusive. The non-exclusive tag would allow other teams to negotiate with the player but the Rams would have matching rights to any contract the player might agree to elsewhere and if those rights are eschewed, the team would receive two first-round picks as compensation. The exclusive tag does not allow any team but the original team negotiating rights.

- The transition tag is a less used designation because it generally isn’t much less than the franchise tag and doesn’t have the exclusivity option or the same amount of compensation should the player sign elsewhere.

- It’s extremely unlikely the Rams will use either tag on a player given their cap constraints and the cost of tagging a player. WR Danny Amendola would be the most likely candidate but with a price tag in the ball park of $10 million and Amendola’s recent injury issues, it seems like a long shot.

- Some players around that league that do figure to be tagged include Denver LT Ryan Clady, Baltimore QB Joe Flacco, Atlanta S William Moore, Buffalo S Jairus Byrd and Tennessee TE Jared Cook.

- I’ll be traveling to Indianapolis on Wednesday and our wall to wall coverage of the scouting combine will begin on Thursday. For those that read regularly, I don’t often brag about our coverage here but with myself and two of our excellent video producers in attendance this year, I believe we will have some of the most complete combine coverage you will find anywhere. We’ll have blogs, feature stories and player interviews galore.

- Talk to you all then. Thanks for reading.