Franchise tags can start tomorrow but Miami Dolphins won’t use it

Tomorrow marks the first day that NFL teams can begin securing their impending free agents with the use of the franchise and transition tags. Don’t expect the Miami Dolphins to use any of those options.

The franchise tag will come with an exclusive designation and a non-exclusive. The latter allows teams to sign a player from another team and gain compensation for that player. The transition tag is also a way to at least get compensation from a player should they leave but all of the options come with a price.

The franchise tag will guarantee a player to be paid an average of the top five salaries at his position while the transition tag pays in the top 10% of that position.

For the Dolphins, the list of unrestricted free agents doesn’t equate to a player being paid in that neighborhood. Miami has 13 unrestricted free agents. Matt Brieda, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Ted Karras and obviously others.

Miami wasn’t expected to try and keep anyone under contract using the tag options and 2022 likely won’t see Miami using the tags either. The last time the Dolphins used either tag was in 2018 when Miami used the franchise tag on Jarvis Landry. Miami removed the tag and traded him to the Cleveland Browns.

This year, Miami won’t use either tag. The question that we should be asking is which of the non-UFA players will be tendered and at what level?  Miami has three exclusive rights free agents and two restricted free agents. Miami shouldn’t receive much interest in Isaiah Ford or Jake Ruddock and if they want to keep them, they will probably sign them to one-year non-guaranteed deals.