No NFL players will play on franchise tag for first time in decade

The Kansas City Chiefs contract extension with star guard Trey Smith on Tuesday was significant for two reasons. From a Chiefs perspective, it locks in a key member of their offensive line and keeps a key protector of Patrick Mahomes in place for the foreseeable future.

It is also significant from a league-wide perspective because it means no player in the NFL will play the 2025 season under the franchise tag. 

Only two players were designated as franchise players this offseason, with Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins joining Smith as players to get the tag. 

Both ended up signing long-term deals with their respective teams.

With both players signed long-term, the 2025 season will be the first time in a decade that the NFL has had zero players playing a season under the one-year franchise tag. 

There was only one player that played the 2024 season under the tag when Higgins played for the $21.8 million franchise tag at wide receiver. 

It's significant for players because the franchise tag is generally extremely unpopular from their perspective. While playing under the tag can be extremely lucrative on a short-term basis, paying players the average of the five highest-paid salaries at their position, it does not give them any long-term security and severely limits their ability to get maximum value on the open market. 

While contract negotiations between team and tagged player can get intense, and at times ugly, the fact we have only seen one player play on the tag over the past two years is a pretty big shift from recent years. 

In 2023 the NFL had three players play out the season under the tag.

In 2022 it was four players.

In 2021 there were six.

In 2020 there were a whopping 12 players that played out the season on the tag. 

Overall between 2015 and 2025 there were 77 players that were tagged at the start of the offseason, with 39 of them playing out that season under the tagged salary. 

The fact nobody is doing so this season is a pretty big win for the players, as the top free agents either were able to test the open market, or get their big money contract extension from their original team.