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Today marks a fairly important date on the NFL’s offseason calendar, as it is the first day that teams can designate their players with either the franchise or transition tags. Beginning today, NFL will have two weeks to apply a tag to one of their pending free agents, if they so choose.
Most are expecting this “tag season” to be a relatively quiet one, and the Patriots are one of those teams unlikely to make any designations.
The two most plausible candidates the Patriots could use the tag on are Aqib Talib and Julian Edelman. The cornerback position will cost $11.256 million and the receiver position $11.539 million for the franchise tag. Considering how the Patriots value their receivers, the high cost of the tag, and the loaded free agent and draft classes, it is highly unlikely the Patriots choose to tag Edelman. Talib could be a sleeper for the tag especially if the sides can make progress towards a new deal in the next two weeks. However, considering that the Patriots aren’t exactly overflowing with cap space, I don’t see the team ultimately going that direction.