The NFL adjusted the 2020 tag window by two days to accommodate the CBA discussions and deliberations. The window now closes before the vote on the new CBA concludes. And the NFL’s current position is that there will be no further adjustment of the tag deadline.
“No plans to change date,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT in response to the question of whether the closing of the tag window would be adjusted from 4:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 12 to, for example, 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday, March 13.
The tag window has particular relevance this year because, under the current CBA, teams can use a franchise tag and a transition tag. Under the new CBA, teams will be permitted to use one or the other.
It’s possible that, for teams that use both tags, the league would then direct them (if the CBA is ratified) to pick one or the other. It’s also possible that teams will use only one tag anyway, assuming that the CBA will be ratified.
The issue has particular relevance for teams like the Cowboys and Titans. Both have two key free agents (Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper in Dallas, Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry in Tennessee), and both would surely like to use the franchise tag on one and the transition tag on the other.
