It is realistic to assume that the lowered salary cap for 2021 will greatly affect franchise tag utilization throughout the league. A large chunk of cash devoted to a single player for just the 2021 league year doesn’t make a ton of sense when teams could take advantage of the depressed free agent market this year and spread out a larger percentage of cash owed to later years when they’ll have more money to spend.
That said, some teams will simply be in a pickle of their own making. While even the best general manager couldn’t anticipate a global pandemic squeezing revenue, some teams find themselves in this position more often than not.