You never want to use the Franchise Tag on a player unless you absolutely have to do it to keep him around—because all of that tag money goes directly against your salary cap space. It would be much better to work out a longer term deal with a signing bonus spread out over the life of the contract—much more cap friendly for, say, the first 3 or 4 years of the new contract, and definitely a great benefit to the salary cap budget in year 1 of the contract.
Two Ravens who are free agents are guard/tackle Kelechi Osemele and kicker Justin Tucker. Both have played well enough over the course of their rookie contracts that the Ravens want to keep them both. But there may not be enough dough in the cookie jar to sign a long-term deal for each of them.
Hence, the Franchise Tag device could come into play—for one of them, that is.
Starting with the lower financial outlay candidate, we look at Justin Tucker. He’s one of the best placekickers in the league. Someone will pay him if the Ravens don’t sign him or tag him.
“We will go to work on trying to get a contract done [for Tucker],” General Manager Ozzie Newsome said last month. “We do know what the franchise number is for a kicker, if it gets to that. But, we will go to work on that, and we want Justin to be a part of our team.”
The franchise $ number for a kicker is $4.5 million. That’s actually an affordable number for the Ravens, but it would represent a $4.5 million cap space hit— money that could be better spent signing a quality free agent at a position of need.
Justin Tucker’s reaction: “At this juncture, I’m kind of letting it all just unfold how it’s going to unfold, and I’m optimistic that something will get done.”
Then there’s the much larger financial outlay candidate—it would cost $14 million to put the franchise tag on guard/tackle Kelechi Osemele. “K.O.” played the final four games at left tackle after starting at left guard for most of the season. He’s fought through some back and leg issues over the years but has emerged as one of the better young run-blockers and pass-protectors in the league.
Osemele’s value actually increases for the Ravens after that klunker of a season (5-11) in 2015. That’s because there are now big questions about left tackle Eugene Monroe’s consistency and durability. John Urschel and James Hurst can fill in for a game or two for Monroe, but both those guys were getting pushed around a lot out there in key parts of losing games.
That’s why you want to retain Osemele—he can take over at left tackle if Monroe is done or gone.
“I had a really good conversation with ‘K.O.’ when the move [from guard] was made,” Newsome said. “But that conversation was no different than [conversations] I’ve had with [Marshal] Yanda and Jimmy [Smith], or with [Pernell] McPhee and Torrey [Smith] and [Paul] Kruger. We will have a chance to look at that. We have Eugene Monroe, who’s under contract. We still have James Hurst.”
The last time the Ravens used a Franchise Tag on an offensive lineman was back in 1998 (Wally Williams).
It’s hard to imagine Ozzie spending $14 million to tag “K.O.” — again, that’s a lot of bread to spend against the cap on a one-year rental of a swing lineman. Still, you could put the tag on Osemele with the hopes of getting a long-term deal with him done by July 15, which is the deadline for removing the Franchise Tag on a player. After July 15, you’re stuck with a Franchise Tag bill, for better or worse.
Depending on a decision to hang on to Eugene Monroe at left tackle, I think it’s more likely that the Ravens will not spend a Franchise Tag on Osemele. They will put a competitive contract offer on the table. If K.O. rejects it, then wish him luck elsewhere. They will miss him initially, but the fact is you can draft a tackle or two in April who can learn behind Monroe and right tackle Rick Wagner. Urschel or Hurst could fill in at left guard in the meantime. There are a lot of options if you have to replace K.O.— but in an ideal Ravens world, Ozzie would get a deal done with K.O. to keep him around without even bothering to consider a Franchise tag. Osemele is good enough to want to keep around. I liked him better at guard anyway, but the ability to competently sub in at left tackle is a very valuable commodity. I think Joe Flacco (who got rolled up by his own lineman Urschel who was filling in at LT last season) would agree as he returns from a successful knee surgery rehab.
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