New York Jets: Franchise Tag Window Opens

Starting this afternoon, teams are allowed to use their franchise tag on free agents to be. The franchise tag is essentially a one year contract at a salary averaging the top five contracts at a given position or 120 percent of a player's current salary, whichever is more. It is more complicated than this, but from a practical standpoint, franchising a player usually keep him on that team for another year.

Here are unrestricted free agents the Jets have.

The tag has to be used under unique circumstances. Given the amount of money it requires paying a player, it should only be used on top of the line talent a team has not been able to lock up. I see a some players on this list that I would not mind seeing the Jets keep at the right price, but I do not see anybody the Jets absolutely have to keep. There certainly is no top talent among the candidates.

David Harris

Michael Vick

Willie Colon

Kyle Wilson

Dawan Landry

Nick Bellore

Benjamin Ijalana

Leger Douzable

Tanner Purdum

Phillip Adams

John Conner

Jermaine Cunningham

Kenrick Ellis

Bilal Powell

There probably isn't anybody the Jets are even going to consider tagging this season. A year from now, that's a different story. You can almost take to the bank that Muhammad Wilkerson is getting tagged if he and the Jets haven't worked out a long-term deal by then.