Tuesday marked the day to be able to use the franchise tag designation. Many teams elected to do so. The Carolina Panthers were not one of them.
As some of you may recall, they did not use the franchise tag last season either. There was some speculation that they would use it on kicker Graham Gano, but the team signed their kicker before the deadline that Tuesday. At the time, it was sort of a relief that both sides were able to get the deal done.
To me, the Panthers not using the franchise tag means a couple of things.