Jeff Kerr, CBS Sports NFL Writer

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Covers all things NFL for CBS Sports. Jeff, how are you, man? Hey, JR. Uh, I don't want to say I know it all. I like to think I know it all, though. Well, listen, I, well, I said you know it all, so now you do. You don't have to back me up, okay? All right. That, that works for me.

No problem. So today for, and a lot of people understand the franchise tag. A lot of people don't.

Give it to us in layman's terms for people who aren't as hip. So pretty much this is for any unrestricted free agent. Now it's for any unrestricted free agent that's played, um, you know, that, that is played more than, I think it's four accrued seasons. I think that that's the actual amount.

I gotta double check that. But pretty much the gist of it is any unrestricted free agent. You can slap the tag on if you don't want to hit free agency, but. There's a designated amount there.

It is the top five. It's the average of the top five salaries for that position. And that's how much you would have to pay that, that player if you slap the tag on. But it also gives you to July 15th to work out a long-term extension with that player.

Absolutely. And so for instance, we saw this last year, uh, with someone like Saquon Barkley, uh, who was tagged, uh, didn't get a long-term deal, but they put in a little extra something on top of it just to keep him around. And if you are tagged one time the next year, the tag goes up. And so you can only be tagged three times and correct me if I'm wrong, Jeff, it's, it's cost prohibitive to just keep on tagging someone for like all three years.

Yeah, yeah. Uh, that's correct. So now the one guy, I pretty sure the Vikings can tag him, but I don't know how it works since this is with another key, but remember Kirk Cousins got tagged twice by Washington.

Now, does it count as the third time in Minnesota or does it get reset? Uh, I think it's, I think it was the last time he can be tagged, but again, that's another one I got double checked, but you're right with the Saquon Barkley thing. The tag would go up if you would tag him another year.

Remember the Cowboys wanted to do this with Dak Prescott. They tagged him once and then it got a little tricky. So they had to sign the extension. It's kind of Dak box, uh, put them in a box as you will. And so he had to get the contract extension, but yeah, that's where the tag can get very tricky.

I always try to simplify it as much as I can. It's okay. They can tag this guy. They got to July 15th to work out an extension, but they don't replace the whole year under the tag and you take the cap hit. And Jeff Kerr is here with us. NFL writer from CBS sports, you know, mentioning Saquon Barkley, he's not the only dude who's eligible to be tagged again. Uh, Josh Dick Jacobs of the Raiders. He got tagged, uh, last year, the same thing with Tony Pollard. When you think about who's eligible and available to be tagged, who do you think is most realistically, uh, likely to not be tagged and maybe move on to a new team?

Well, Tampa Bay was one of those teams. I thought they could have tagged Baker Mayfield. They could have tagged Antoine Winfield. It looks like they are going to tag Antoine Winfield. When I did my Oracle, CBS sports.com, I said, you know, the guy I would tag.

And I know it's, it's probably a dirty thing to do if you're Tampa Bay. Cause I think he was tagged before. I can't remember, but Mike Evans, um, that would be, that would have been the guy I would tag just because I think you need him in a Buccaneers uniform to win that division next year. You know, the one constant with that team between Jameis Winston, Tom Brady, all those guys, you know, Baker Mayfield has been like Evans. He's still an elite receiver in this league. He still gets a thousand yards every season.

Uh, he's 10 for 10 again, a thousand yard season. So I would have tagged him. I would have paid him $21 million this year and took that hit and try to sign Winfield to a long-term deal and try to take care of Baker Mayfield because Baker wants Mike Evans there. So you might as well tag Mike Evans, but it does look like Mike Evans is going to hit the open market. If he does, I think he's going to be one of those guys. He'll be signed within the first couple of hours of free agency. Yeah, I would absolutely think that, that Mike Evans would, would move on to, I would say even a stronger, uh, contender, try to get right back into the post season.

Jeff Curtis here with us from CBS Sports. Anyone else, any other players that we should take note on? For guys getting tagged, so I thought Dallas might try to get him a Tony Pollard, but Pollard didn't have that great of a year last year. You could probably get him at a cheaper rate. I know you mentioned Josh Jacobs earlier. Jacobs would be a guy that I definitely would not tag. I probably would let him hit the open market or if he does want to come back to Vegas, uh, you see how much. You can get for, I personally think you could sign Josh Jacobs for a multi-year deal, maybe a two year, $16 million deal. And again, I'm just throwing numbers out there. Is it big for running back?

Absolutely. But it's a lot cheaper than playing for, uh, whatever he made last year, the 11, $12 million he, he got, um, after getting tagged. But yeah, there's a couple of names out there that, and again, there are a lot of teams that just don't have a good free agent crop this year. Like Green Bay would be one. Uh, I don't think they need to tag anybody. Philadelphia is the teams don't think that they really need to, uh, Washington could be interesting with Cameron curl. I, I, I don't know what they would necessarily tag him, but he's a very underrated player. And I think he's going to get a nice little, uh, pay bump and free agency, but I don't think they necessarily need to tag anybody that it's, you know, obviously there, there are some easy ones like Arizona.

They don't need to tag anybody. I, how are the, how are the dolphins going to tag anybody right now? They're 51 million over the cap. The same, the same, they're 83 million over the cap.

So that's what you got to look at through the cap situation. Well, let me ask you this, Jeff, I want to go backwards because I had mentioned Saquon Barkley earlier in the conversation. Uh, you just brought up Josh Jacobs and then also Tony Pollard. Here we are again, looking at running backs in the face. And we know that they were quote unquote devalued last year. They have been devalued, you know, over the past several seasons, maybe the past decade. And someone like Saquon Barkley, is he sticking around with the giants? A lot of those running backs that got tagged last year, they had off year. So what's the deal with somebody like Saquon, especially for a giants team.

That's just like, let's be real. They they're rebuilding. Do they need to keep him around? I think it'd be best for both parties as Saquon moved on. Look, uh, Saquon was by far the best player in, in that anemic offense last year. And you know, you saw firsthand, you know, or how bad they were, uh, even with Daniel Jones, they had no pass catchers, uh, atmosphere, uh, you know, Darren Waller always got hurt. That offensive line gave up 85 sacks last year.

That's an absolute joke. And that doesn't help Saquon out. So it made sense he had bad year, but yeah, Saquon isn't the Saquon we saw at Penn State or his first couple of years in New York, but I still think he's an effective running back. Let's put him behind a good offensive line and maybe in a legitimate role where he doesn't have to be the feature back and the go-to guy every play. I bet he is a heck of a lot more effective than he was the last two years in New York.

Well, that's just some tough going here. Jeff Kerr joining us CBS Sports. Once we get past this, this tag period, obviously we know we're looking towards the NFL draft.

Any surprises, anybody that you think might move up there? I know the Chicago Bears, we learned that Justin Fields is on social media acting like the Bears don't exist. What's going on with some of the teams that need QBs, whether it be the Raiders or the Bears, the Falcons, what's going on there, Jeff? Well, you like how the Falcons basically said today that they're going to do everything in their power to get a quarterback this year. Like, well, you could have done that last year with a quarterback who's in Baltimore right now and called the Ravens bluff and you decided not to do that in Lamar Jackson.

So why would you want to be aggressive now in getting one? I'm still curious to see where Marvin Harrison Jr. ends up. We talk about the Kayla Williams, the Drake Mays of the world. Is he going to fall into the Cardinals lap or the Patriots lap?

Do you choose Drake May or do you choose Marvin Harrison Jr.? That's just a legit question. Absolutely.

It's like he's his dad, but bigger. Exactly. I mean, the guy's a bona fide stud and you see what Ohio statewide receivers do in this league and do you have anybody who can throw a football? I think Marvin Harrison would be more than legit. You know, I always thought maybe the Bears would keep fields and just pair Marvin Harrison with D.J.

Moore and say, you know what, we got to know what pick we earned this. But I think you got to get the quarterback at this point. You know, nothing against Justin Fields, but it feels like a desperate team will try to get him like the Steelers or the Falcons or so. That's another thing that plays out.

Like, if you can't move into the top five, Justin Fields is right there. And I'm sure if you pair him in a different offense and a different system, he can thrive. He can thrive. Yeah, it'll be interesting.

I think he's an ideal fit here in Atlanta with all of their weapons, not so much pressure to go out there and deliver, especially the fact that the Falcons, they can they can run with the ball. They can. I think they should be able to throw the ball around if they have a quarterback to do so.

And so we'll certainly see what takes place. And as it relates, Jeff, to the franchise, this is my final question. This seems so restrictive for the players. How the hell does this get by every CBA negotiation? I guess the owners got this much power, right?

Yeah, that's pretty much what it is. Like, I don't know how I would treat it if I was a player in the NFL. And I love to ask NFL players that were actually tagged because you wait, you're pretty much your whole life to be a free agent, get that guaranteed contract, that guarantee money. But you kind of are getting the guarantee money and you're getting it up front for a year.

But then you got to go through all this again. And in a way, it's like the teams have all that power. It's like, hey, yeah, we're going to pay you. But I'm sure teams, you know, I'm sure you're the same way. You rather have a multiyear contract. I rather have a multiyear contract.

I would hate playing year to year. I mean, I'm sure the money is nice, but it's really weird how that always gets by in the CBA. But I feel like this also came back to when free agency started in 1993, when they decide, hey, look, we just can't let these teams lose everybody because they want to be a free agent.

So if they want the power to keep somebody, they're more than welcome to. But you don't see this in basketball. You don't see this in baseball. You don't see this in hockey. So I don't understand why it's a thing in football. And I'm sure a player is it's bittersweet when they get tagged.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, they hate it. I mean, we hear that every year.

They absolutely hate it. Like you sign a four year contract, you come out of your rookie deal or and then the next thing you know, hey, you're not really free. We can give you the average salary of the best players and then we can do it again. That's that's six years of just, hey, you're locked in here to us. And so, I mean, for a sport like the NFL, which is we know if you break your leg, you're done, you can be discarded. I don't know if this is like massive security for the owners. I guess it is. But it is ridiculously restrictive for the players.

And it's just mind blowing to me that they the players, they keep it around. And who knows? Maybe into the future won't be there.

But it's just seems like it's in the dark ages, Jeff. Well, yeah. Well, here's another scenario for you.

Say a team fires their coach and you're a cornerback, for example, you get a whole new defensive coordinator. You decide, I don't want to be here anymore. I'm a really good player. This game doesn't fit, but they tag you. You're stuck.

You can't go anywhere. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a wild system. And we go through it every year and players get tagged. And yeah, they still get paid. But if anybody, not that I feel bad for anyone deeply that much, it seems like the running backs always get the short end of the stick, regardless of what's going on, because by the time they get drafted into the NFL, and by the time they legitimately reach free agency, they're almost looked upon as being done already. And they haven't even had a chance to go get another contract. So hard knock life really for the running backs.

Yeah. I mean, look at Miles Sanders, for example. I mean, he got paid and now everybody says he's a terrible running back. I'm like, well, you didn't think he was a terrible running back when he was making pennies on the dollar. Now he's a terrible running back because he ran behind the worst offensive line in football, but he got his guaranteed money.

So it's it's his contract definitely did not help running backs in the future. Yeah. Wow.

Wild stuff. Well, Jeff, thank you for taking the time to join us. Where can people follow you and all of your great work with CBS Sports? You can just search me on CBS sports dot com. I just did the franchise tag primer, a free agency primer. You can follow me at Jeff Kerr CBS.

You know, Kerr, like Steve Kerr, just taking the last name there. But yeah, that's pretty much where you find all my work. And there'll be more coming as free agency comes. My favorite time of year, J.R. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Terrific. Jeff, thank you for taking the time. We'll talk to you down the line, OK? Yes, you got it, bud.

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