The Las Vegas Raiders and All Pro running back Josh Jacobs have yet to come to a long term contract agreement. As it stands right now, the NFL’s leading rusher is absent from training camp as he waits to sign the franchise tag. So what exactly is a franchise tag? I’m glad you’ve asked.
The franchise tag is a special type of contract for one-year that only exists in the NFL. Once per offseason, a franchise may choose to tag a player, locking them into a non-negotiated salary for the upcoming season.
Only players who are about to become free agents can be hit. The franchise tag can’t be used to adjust a player’s salary in the middle of their contract.
Generally, teams use the franchise tag strategically, choosing to lock up a key player for a year if long-term negotiations fall apart. According to theathletic.com “Jacobs received the non-exclusive franchise tag designation from the team after leading the league in rushing last season, but he is reasonably looking for a long-term contract rather than play on the one-year tag worth $10.1 million.”
There’s logically several things that are wrong with this equation. The first issue for me is, the average salary of an NFL running back in 2023 is $1.81M and the average salary of an NFL kicker in 2023 is $2.26. That’s just under $500k… No one is addressing that issue? I know some of you say “these athletes are getting paid way to much money.” I have another opinion and we can address that at another time.
Josh Jacobs is by far an average player. Since being drafted in the first round in 2019, Jacobs has quickly become a fan favorite and a key player for the Raiders. Here’s another problem in this situation… He had a whopping 340 carries last season, becoming the top RB with 1.653 rushing yards and The NFL quickly crowned him the brand new rushing champ. Jacobs has more than proven himself to be a primary weapon for Josh McDaniels in Las Vegas.
Fans as well as players are taking to social media and expressing their feelings.
