Tag Time Arrives and the Dolphins History with Tagging

Will the Dolphins use the tag on Christian Wilkins?

A big date on the NFL calendar arrives Tuesday when NFL teams can start using the franchise or transition tag on a pending unrestricted free agent.

The tagging period will last through March 5, eight days before the start of the 2024 league year, which also is the start of the free agent signing period and trades are allowed.

Several teams around the league have players who make for good candidates to get tagged, and for the Miami Dolphins, that player is defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.

After playing (and starring) on his fifth-year option in 2023, Wilkins would be an attractive defensive tackle option on the free agent market and he's a foundational piece for the Dolphins they might not want to take a chance on losing.

Signing Wilkins to a new long-term contract, with reasonable cap numbers in the first year or two of the contract, would seem the best-case scenario for the Dolphins, but the negotiations don't figure to be simple — particularly after they failed to produce a long-term agreement last summer.

The Dolphins could buy themselves more time to negotiate a long-term deal and/or retain the ability to hang on to Wilkins by applying the tag on Wilkins, though that's going to come at a cost of around $20 million.

And that's not exactly an ideal situation for the Dolphins, given their sticky cap situation, which already has them more than $50 million over the projected cap limit of $242 million they need to be in compliance with by March 13.

The Dolphins have used a tag — franchise or transition — eight times since free agency began in full swing around the NFL in 1993, and it'll be interesting to see if Wilkins will become number 9.

If the Dolphins don't tag Wilkins and he leaves via free agency, they could earn a compensatory pick in 2024, but that would depend on several factors.

THE DOLPHINS HISTORY WITH THE TAG

2022 — TE Mike Gesicki

About a month after Mike McDaniel was hired as head coach, the Dolphins made the decision to place a non-exclusive franchise tag on Gesicki. It made sense at the time given how McDaniel's former team, the 49ers made such full use of tight end George Kittle — even if Kittle is a rare talent at the position.

Gesicki signed the tag six days later, and that was followed shortly after by the Dolphins trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill, which kind of changed the whole outlook of the offense.

With the Dolphins now having speed all over the place on offense, Gesicki became an afterthought in the passing game and it's pretty safe to suggest they would have rescinded the tag had Gesicki not already signed it.

Gesicki ended up leaving for New England as a free agent the next offseason.

2018 — WR Jarvis Landry

Despite his impressive production, Landry and the Dolphins were ready to turn the page after four seasons, so they put the franchise tag on him and then turned around and traded him to the Cleveland Browns for a fourth-round pick in 2018 and a seventh-round pick in 2019.

The Dolphins turned those picks into Durham Smythe and Myles Gaskin, while Landry got a big contract extension with the Browns that Miami wasn't willing to give him.

Landry wasn't able to match his Miami production in Cleveland, in part because he kept getting sidetracked by injuries.

2016 — DE Olivier Vernon

This one was interesting,

The Dolphins put the transition tag on Vernon after he had 29 sacks in four years, only to rescind it eight days later after they signed veteran Mario Williams as a free agent. That made Vernon an unrestricted free agent and he signed a five-year, $85 million contract with the New York Giants, for whom he played three seasons before being traded to the Browns.

Vernon remained a very good player after leaving the Dolphins, though he failed to play a complete season after his first year with the Giants in 2016 and his career basically ended when he tore an Achilles tendon late the 2020 season.

2015 — TE Charles Clay

In 2015, the Dolphins placed the transition tag on Clay, giving them the right to match any offer he received from another team. But Miami declined to do just that when Buffalo came in with a five-year deal worth $38 million.

In retrospect, this was the right call for the Dolphins. Clay had 69 and 58 catches his final two seasons in Miami but never matched those numbers for the Bills or the Arizona Cardinals after moving there and he also never matched his receiving yardage totals of those 2013 and 2014 seasons when he had 759 and 605 yards.

2013 — DT Randy Starks

The Dolphins signed Starks to a five-year deal as an up-and-coming player in 2008 and that move will go down as one of the team's best-ever free agent signing.

After Starks made the Pro Bowl in his fourth and fifth seasons, the Dolphins made sure to hang on to him to putting the franchise tag and then the following year they re-signed him as a UFA. He remained a solid player through his sixth and seventh (and final) seasons with the Dolphins, though he didn't return to the Pro Bowl.

2011 — DT Paul Soliai

Soliai took some time to develop as a fourth-round pick in the 2007 draft, but by the time he completed his fourth season in 2010, he had become a very, very good interior defensive lineman, so the Dolphins made sure to keep him by putting the franchise tag on him.

Soliai rewarded the Dolphins by turning in a Pro Bowl season in 2011 and Miami re-signed him to a two-year contract the following offseason before Soliai eventually left as a UFA in 2014.

2001 — DE Jason Taylor

The Dolphins had no intention of letting Taylor go anywhere after he earned All-Pro recognition for the first time in 2000, so they slapped the franchise tag on him to make sure he wasn't going anywhere.

And then they replaced the one-year tag with a long-term contract and Taylor wound up playing for the Dolphins through the 2011 season, with one-year stops in Washington in 2008 and with the New York Jets in 2010.

2000 — T Richmond Webb

The ninth overall pick in the 1990 draft, Webb made the Pro Bowl in each of his first seven seasons for the Dolphins and they put the franchise tag on him before his final season in Miami.

Webb eventually left to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals as a UFA in 2001 and he finished out his career with 20 starts for them before signing a one-day contract in 2005 to officially retire as a member of the Dolphins.

1998 — DT Tim Bowens

One of the most underappreciated Dolphins players through the years, Bowens was good enough in his first four seasons that the team put the franchise tag on him and he rewarded them (like Soliai) with a Pro Bowl season.

The Dolphins then signed Bowens to a couple of five-year contracts before his career eventually ended in 2005.

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