Before NFL free agency begins, teams are allowed to apply franchise tags to players beginning Feb. 21 and through March 7 to give them a sense of what they need to do before the league year starts on March 15.
What is the franchise tag?
The franchise tag is a designation teams can apply to a player scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent, and it binds the player to the team for one season. Franchise tag figures are based on the top five salaries at each position. The NFL has told its 32 teams that the 2023 salary cap will be a record $224.