The window to place the franchise tag on unrestricted free agents opened yesterday. Teams have until March 8th to place the franchise tag on any of their unrestricted free agents.
Once a team tags a player, the player can either chose to sign the franchise tag or refuse to sign it. If they sign it, they return to the club for one year and earn an average salary of the top five players at their position.
Teams can also tag a player, sign them and then trade them. They could also opt to do nothing and either try to re-sign the player to an extension or let them move on in free agency.
If history is any indication, the Patriots are more than likely going to place the franchise tag on J.C Jackson and bring him back for one more season.
In the twenty plus years Bill Belichick has run the Patriots, the team has used the franchise tag ten times. Four of those players played on the tag, then left the next year. Four signed extensions and two were tagged and traded.
The Patriots don’t have a choice. They need Jackson so tagging him and bringing him back makes the most sense. According to OverTheCap, that would cost the Patriots $17.3 million next season. Jackson made $3.4 million last season so that is a significant bump in pay.
New England currently has $4.896.056 million in cap space according to Miguel Benzan so Belichick is going to have to move some money around and make some decisions in the near future if the Patriots are going to bring Jackson back.
For his part, Jackson has been very vocal about his current situation. Jackson told NBC Sports Boston’s Phil A Perry that he has not engaged in any talks with the Patriots since the season ended.
“I guess they feel like they don’t need me,” Jackson told Perry. “I guess I can’t be that important to them. I know I am, but they’re not showing me.”
Jackson did tell Perry that the Patriots approached him about an extension during the season but no contract was purposed.
“It was all positive things,” he said. “I wanted to focus on ball at the time. I wanted to finish the season the right way. I didn’t really come back to them on it.”
Jackson acknowledged that if he gets tagged, he will go out and play. He also made it clear to Perry that he wants to get paid.
“Whatever happens, happens. I’m taking it day by day. But it’s time for me to get paid. It’s time to get Mr. INT paid.”
Jackson will get paid but I would expect this to go to the last possible minute. In their history, the Patriots have only tagged two players in the first week of the franchise tag window, Matt Cassel and Logan Mankins. Cassel signed and was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009. Mankins signed and was signed to an extension in 2011.
Jackson has all the leverage in this situation because he knows that if the Patriots don’t tag him, he can get the contract he wants in the open market. In essence, he knows he has them by the balls if you will.
It is why the Patriots will ultimately franchise him, keep him for one more season and let him walk after next season. It is the most sensible thing to do.