Broncos will not use franchise or transition tag this year
Mar 5, 2024, 3:39 PM | Updated: 3:45 pm
The Denver Broncos will not place the franchise or transition tag on any of their players this year.
That was expected, and it became official Tuesday when the NFL unveiled the list of players given those designations by teams in advance of the new league year, which starts March 13.
There was just one candidate for the Broncos franchise tag: center Lloyd Cushenberry. The 2020 third-round pick had his best season last year, and in a different environment, the Broncos might have brought him back.
However, the situation befalling the Broncos calls for tough choices as they work to get under the salary cap while also absorbing a dead-money hit on Russell Wilson that could suck a league-record $85 million from their cap over the next two years.
Keeping Cushenberry on the franchise tag would have required a $20,985,000 cap charge for this season, since the franchise and transition tags for centers are determined by contracts for the entire offensive line. Given that Cushenberry is expected to fetch somewhere between $10 and $13 million per year on the market, that would have been a mouthful to swallow.
Denver appears poised to turn in-house for a potential lreplacement. In January, general manager George Paton identified 2023 seventh-round pick Alex Forsyth as a starting-caliber player in the NFL. Another Day 3 pick — Luke Wattenberg of the 2022 draft class — is also expected to compete for playing time.
The Broncos last used the franchise tag in 2021, which was a precursor to keeping Justin Simmons. Shortly after the Broncos tagged Simmons, he signed a four-year, $61-million extension.
A year earlier, the Broncos tagged Simmons. He ended up playing out the season on that one-year deal. Historically, the franchise tag usually results in a long-term contract from the Broncos; that was the case for players such as Jason Elam, Ryan Clady, Demaryius Thomas and Von Miller.
