Franchise Tag Window Opens Today: Jets Likely to Tag Muhammad Wilkerson

Today is the first day teams can place the franchise tag on players.

The franchise tag is a one year contract offer teams can make to players about to hit free agency. The salary level is the average of the top five salaries at a player's position. There are a couple of different types of franchise tag, but they all have the same effect. A player who gets the tag is not going anywhere. There is an exclusive tag that prevents the player from going to another team. There is also a nonexclusive tag that would allow the player's original team to match any offer made in free agency and force the new team to give up two first round picks if the original team chose to not match the offer.

For the Jets, the obvious candidate to be tagged is Muhammad Wilkerson. It seems the team and the player have made little progress on a new deal. The official franchise tag numbers are not out yet, but it is expected to be around $15 million for a defensive end.

Just because today is the first day the Jets can tag Wilkerson does not necessarily mean it will happen today. Teams have until 4:00 p.m. on March 1 to tag players.