The Minnesota Vikings may have a to pay a hefty percentage of their total salary cap if they want to use the franchise tag on a player for the 2017 season.
In the past, the Minnesota Vikings have been able to get away without having a player actually play a year on a franchise tag. However, that option is still on the table for the 2017 season with some big names scheduled to hit free agency.
In the past, the financial cost of the franchise tag was the average of the top 5 players at the corresponding position. However, after 2011 that changed to be a percentage of the total salary cap based on the position’s top 5 paid players and number of franchise tags used in that time.
According to a post on the Pro Football Talk website, it is said that a “source with knowledge of the situation” passed on information about the percentages and approximate costs for a player of each position to be tagged if the NFL salary cap is $165 million for the 2017 season. Here is that information:
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- QB: 12.735% – $21.01 million
- DE: 10.14% – $16.73 million
- WR: 9.39% – $15.49 million
- LB: 8.712% – $14.37 million
- OL: 8.546% – $14.1 million
- CB: 8.51% – $14.04 million
- DT: 8.016% – $13.22 million
- RB: 7.257% – $11.9 million
- S: 6.524% – $11.9 million
- TE: 5.856% – $9.66 million
- K/P: 2.895% – $4.77 million
The top candidate for the Minnesota’s franchise tag should be cornerback Captain Munnerlyn. However, seeing a price tag of over $14 million would likely scare the Vikings out of using it on the defensive back.
Next: Vikings franchise tag candidates
Hopefully, the Minnesota Vikings can work deals with players they want to bring back to the team for the 2017 season so using the franchise tag isn’t an option, but this is the NFL where just about anything can happen…and usually does.