Packer Central

History Says Packers Won’t Play Tag

Teams can begin using the franchise tag on Tuesday, with running back Aaron Jones a candidate for the Green Bay Packers.

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Beginning Tuesday, teams can lock up a top free agent with the use of the franchise tag.

History says the Green Bay Packers won’t utilize that option.

The Packers haven’t used the franchise tag since placing it on Ryan Pickett in 2010. From 2011 through 2020, the Packers are the only team in the league to not use a tag.

This offseason, the Packers have two high-quality players set to hit free agency: running back Pro Bowl running back Aaron Jones and All-Pro center Corey Linsley.

There is practically a 0 percent chance the Packers will tag Linsley. Under a projected salary cap of $180.5 million, the cost of the franchise tag on an offensive lineman would be $13.60 million, according to OverTheCap.com. That figure is bolstered by the league’s elite offensive tackles. There isn’t a center in the NFL playing under a contract worth that much money.

A running back, on the other hand, is much more affordable. That tag would cost $8.07 million, down 21.4 percent from last year, thanks to the impact of COVID-19 on the salary cap. Among players on offense and defense, a running back is the least-expensive tag.

“A silver lining that teams may recognize from the expected salary cap decline is the discounted rate of franchise tags this season,” wrote OTC’s Hardik Sanghavi. “If (the Packers) can manage to create enough cap space through restructures and cuts to take on a $8M cap charge for Jones, it would be excellent value.”

Among all backs in NFL history with at least 650 carries, Jones ranks sixth with a 5.17-yard average. He’s averaged at least 5.47 yards per carry in three of his four seasons. He had another great year in 2020. While he didn’t find the end zone nearly as often as last year (11 total touchdowns vs. 19 in 2019), he rushed for a career-high 1,104 yards and averaged 5.49 yards per carry.

“He’s just been really, really special to watch,” Rodgers said on The Rich Eisen Show early in the season. “There are some guys who you can’t help but pull for because they do things the right way, and Jonesy is one of those guys. He is one of the greatest teammates that I’ve had in 16 years. He is the most respectful teammate, possibly, that I’ve ever had. He’s just such a great kid.”

The downside of using the franchise tag is the cost on the salary cap. The Packers are $11.45 million over the projected cap. The upside is it buys a team and player extra time to work out a longer-team deal that might be more cap-friendly in Year 1. That’s what the Packers did with Pickett. Two weeks after tagging him, they signed him to a four-year contract.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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