NFL Has No Plans to Change Tag Window Despite Obvious Issues With New CBA Timing
By Jerry Trotta
The NFL really never ceases to amaze.
As we all know, free agency won't begin until March 18, but the tag window has been open since Feb. 27. The league opted to tweak the 2020 tag window by two days to accommodate with the collective bargaining agreement negotiations.
While that might have seemed innovative at the time, the tag window now concludes before the vote on the new CBA closes. Despite that obvious inconvenience, the NFL reportedly has no plans to change its current window.
The NFL has no plans at this point to change the tag window, which runs through 4 p.m. ET on March 12. Player voting on the CBA runs through 11:59 p.m. on March 12. That's significant because teams can use one tag if the CBA is ratified and two tags if it's not.
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) March 5, 2020
This is huge news.
Under the current CBA, teams are presented with the opportunity to use both a franchise tag and a transition tag. The new CBA terms, however, (if approved, of course) would only permit teams to use one or the other.
We're left thinking that the NFL has opted to move forward with the conflicting cutoffs because the new CBA doesn't predict to affect many teams. In fact, we can only think of two organizations that could be troubled: the Tennessee Titans and Dallas Cowboys.
Key dates ahead on the NFL calendar:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 5, 2020
▫️March 12th, 4 PM EST: Deadline to use the franchise or transition tag
▫️March 12th, 11:59 PM EST: Deadline for players to vote on proposed CBA
▫️March 16th, Noon EST: Legal tampering window opens
▫️March 18th, 4 PM EST: Free agency begins
Both teams will be forced to address the futures of two big-named free agents: Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill in Tennessee, and Amari Cooper and Dak Prescott in Dallas. Having both the franchise and transition tag at their disposal would obviously make that headache much easier to sort out.
After this news, the NFL doesn't appear to have the motivation to appease those apparent predicaments.