Report: Buffalo Bills don’t expect to use franchise, transition tag this year

While it was unlikely, a recent report confirmed that the Buffalo Bills would not be using the franchise or transition tag this offseason.

The Buffalo Bills have a few priority free agents that they would likely want back like Shaq Lawson, Jordan Phillips and Quinton Spain. However, if they are not able to reach a new deal with them the Bills don’t expect to use the franchise or transition tag on them, according to a report by Jay Skurski of The Buffalo News.

The franchise tag and transition tag are two tools NFL teams have to keep their top players from hitting free agency. However, there is a hefty price tag that comes with these moves as the franchise tag would be a one-year deal with a salary of the average of the Top 5 salaries at that position. The only difference for the transition tag is that it is an average of the Top 10 salaries at the position.

According to Over the Cap, if the Bills were to tag Shaq Lawson it would cost them $19,316,000 for the franchise tag and $16,388,000 for the transition tag. This is the second highest average salary for these tags behind only the quarterback.

The cost goes down a little more if the Bills were to go this route with Quinton Spain, who would make $16,102,000 under the franchise tag and $14,666,000 under the transition tag. The player it would cost the least to tag would be defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, who would make $15,500,000 under the franchise tag and $12,321,000 under the transition tag.

While the Bills have the cap space to use the franchise tag or transition tag, it doesn’t make sense financially. While Phillips believes he is a Top 3 defensive tackle, it is hard to make a case that any of these players should be paid like one of the top players at their positions.

If the Buffalo Bills don’t elect to use either tag on these players, it leaves them a little less than a month to exclusively negotiate new deals before free agency kicks off in March.