With the NFL season officially over, the window for using the franchise tag opens for all 32 NFL teams opens on Tuesday morning.
Teams will have two weeks to decide if they’ll slap a player hitting free agency with the non-exclusive tag or watch them walk to an open market starting March 4. Keep in mind that the franchise tag is a one-year, fully guaranteed tender that allows a team to keep a player who will be an unrestricted free agent.
So, do the Houston Texans have a franchise tag candidate this year?
The short answer: yes. The real answer: probably not since two-time All-Pro receiver Stefon Diggs is probably not worth the asking price to bring back on the tag.
First things first, please not that there are three different tag options: the non-exclusive franchise tag, the exclusive franchise tag and the transition tag. More on the specifics of the tags can be found here.
Don’t expect the Texans to use a tag on Diggs, defensive back Eric Murray or defensive tackle Mario Edward Jr. during the next two weeks before the deadline. That doesn’t mean Houston won’t be in talks to re-sign one of the players before free agency begins on March 11.
Diggs, whom the Texans traded for last offseason ahead of the draft, would have made sense as a top option if not for a torn ACL suffered in Week 8. Houston also seemed content letting Diggs walk this offseason after restructuring his contract ahead of the season, but plans might have changed after Tank Dell’s season-ending knee injury suffered in mid-December.
The Texans could bring back Diggs, Murray and Edwards on team-friendly one-year deals, but they likely won’t want to commit millions in guaranteed money to players could be replaced with cost-friendly options in free agency. According to Over the Cap, the projected franchise tag values for wide receiver, defensive back and defensive line in 2025 are as follows:
Wide reciever: $25,693,000
Safety: $19,626,000
Defensive tackle: $23,468,000
Those amounts eliminate the Texans’ three most important free agents from serious consideration for the franchise tag. Even the transition tag value for receivers — a potential option if the Texans are serious about keeping Diggs off the market — seems too rich with the asking price being $22.5 million for 2025.
It’s been a while since Houston used the franchise tag on a player, though it has been in ages. In both instances when used in recent memory, neither player returned to the active roster but was used as a tradable option to bring in most assets.
Texans tag history
2019: DE Jadeveon Clowney (traded to SEA)
2009: CB Dunta Robinson (played on one-year tag)