The NFL Franchise Tag is an Insult to Players and Should Be Abolished

Every star NFL player set to become a free agent unfortunately knows that the team that drafted them is going to have almost complete control over who they will play for next season, as several of the league's best players inevitably get the franchise tag, preventing them from hitting the market before free agency even starts.

Just this offseason, Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones has been tagged by Kansas City, while Jaguars pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue already refused to play for Jacksonville going forward before getting the tag himself.

Plain and simple, the tag makes removes the freedom and the agency from free agency. For the sake of NFL players, it needs to be abolished.

While the tag is currently a major travesty, the thinking behind the tag actually does make some sense -- small market teams have always had trouble holding onto their better players, and this allows those teams to do so while helping championship contenders keep their squads intact from season to season. And the tag pays does pay well over the single year for which it applies, calculated as the average of the top five annual salaries in the league at a given position.

How the franchise tag has routinely been implemented, however, is a major sticking point between players and the league. Each position had a different approximate salary from year to year that tagged players will earn, which takes all ability for players to negotiate for maximum market value out of their own hands, as the team instea gets to decide what they'll pay. A player's only defense against the tag is to refuse to sign the franchise tender altogether, which all but guarantees he won't play any football that season, or get paid a single dime.

No wonder so many players, like Chicago Bears wide receiver Allen Robinson, want this whole process abolished in the new collective bargaining agreement.

The players have been able to speak things like reduced padded practices into existence, and keen negotiation might be enough for the league to finally do away with this antiquated salary cap loophole.

You either have real free agency or you don't. The NFL needs to decide here and now if that's something they legitimately value.