Can a franchise-tagged player be traded? All you need to know in 2025

Tuesday marked day one of franchise tagging, opening for NFL teams as the front offices mull over some tough decisions to make regarding their current roster.

Unlike free agency, where we typically see a frenzy of activity right away, the start of franchise tagging doesn’t move at the same lightning-quick pace.

There’s often a misconception of precisely what franchise-tagging a player means and why a team does it. From an outsider, it can be seen as a symbol of what a player means to the organization. However, it is usually for other motives that teams opt to use that tag on a certain player.

In some situations, the tag is a way for a team to control a player’s future and ensure that your organization doesn’t walk away empty-handed should one of your high-priced commodities seek to play for another team.

Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals is a candidate to be franchise-tagged during the offseason, with the receiver due to become an unrestricted free agent on March 12.

Like that situation, the franchise tag has many moving parts, so here’s all you need to know about how it works in 2025.

Non-exclusive franchise tag

The first thing to examine is a non-exclusive franchise tag, which NFL teams use the most. This particular tag is a one-year tender that factors in the average top five wages at a position over the last five years, or 120% of their most recent salary, depending on which is a higher wage.

In those circumstances, a player is allowed to discuss a deal with other teams, though the club they currently play for can match any offer made to that player. If the player in question wants to move on, the club he leaves can get two first-round draft picks as compensation.

Exclusive franchise tag

Unlike the non-exclusive tag, a team that employs an exclusive one on a player essentially holds all the cards regarding negotiations. That will raise the pay scale, with the one-year offer being the average of the top five wages at that position for the current year, or 120% of that player's current salary, depending on which number is larger.

Such a tag is often used on quarterbacks. That's partly because it's the position where other teams would usually be ok to sacrifice two first-round picks in exchange you can build your franchise around.

Transition tag

Lastly, we have the transition tag, which is a one-year tender offer for the average of the top 10 salaries in the position in question. That deal assures the original club the right to refuse to match any offer a player might get. In that scenario, the team that places the tag doesn’t receive any kind of compensation if they don't match the offer in question.

Eight players received this tag in 2024, with seven eventually getting long-term deals. Higgins was the only one of those eight that didn't get a long-term deal. Putting another tender on the former Clemson receiver this year would see his salary increase by 120% over last year’s figure. That means his salary in 2025 could be around $26.2 million.

The rules around franchise tagging

Each club can use one tender annually so they must choose wisely what’s best for them. A player can be franchise-tagged at most three times by their team. They will be due an increase each time they're franchise-tagged. The percentage of the salary cap taken up by the third time a tag is placed generally makes it prohibitive in the future.

A player that gets a tag can be traded only after signing a tender. Anyone who has an unsigned tender is not technically under contract and won't be fined for missing any voluntary workouts, including training camp.

It's unknown what this year's cap will be as it's based on the league’s yearly salary cap, which has yet to be announced. In 2024, the salary caps were at $255.4 million per team, with an extra $74 million per club payment for player benefits. All player costs were $329.4 million per team, which equates to over $10.5 billion league-wide.

So far this year, there hasn’t been as much chatter about franchise tags being used as in years past. Higgins is the biggest name being tossed around, while Trey Smith of the AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs is another possibility but not a certainty.

Even when tags and one-year tenders are used, there’s still some wiggle room for teams to negotiate a different amount or provide some extra incentives after the deadline. We saw that two years ago in the case of running backs Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley. Once a tag is used teams have until July 15 to work out a multi-year extension.

The deadline for teams to franchise tag a player in 2025 is March 4 at 4 pm Eastern time.