Jimmy Garoppolo extension won’t affect this year’s franchise tag

While the contract extension that Jimmy Garoppolo received from the San Francisco 49ers earlier this week could reset the free agent quarterback market, it won’t be because of a bump in the Franchise tag price.

Article 10, Section 7(a) of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, concerning Franchise and Transition Players, reads as follows:

No later than February 1 of each League Year during the term of this Agreement, the NFL shall compile and disclose to the NFLPA a list of each of the five and ten largest Prior Year Salaries for players at the following positions which shall be utilized for calculating the average Prior Year Salaries of players at the positions of Franchise Players and Transition Players: Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, Tight End, Offensive Line, Defensive End, Interior Defensive Line, Linebacker, Cornerback, Safety, and Kicker/Punter.

Because the Garoppolo extension came down on 8 February, it will not be figured into the pricing for Franchise or Transition player tags for this offseason.

While the league has not made the official announcement on the Franchise and Transition tag figures yet, we’ve been using the numbers from the good folks at Over the Cap to base our assumptions off of. Right now, they have the value of the Franchise tag at $23.09 million, and the value of the Transition tag at $20.86 million.

If the Minnesota Vikings should choose to put the Franchise tag on quarterback Case Keenum, he’ll be looking at the same sort of deal that we’ve been looking at. However, the Garoppolo deal could, potentially, increase the cost of a long-term deal between Keenum and the Vikings, should that be what Rick Spielman and company decide they want to do.

We are about nine days away from teams being able to start placing Franchise and Transition tags on their players, so soon we’ll know what direction the Vikings might be looking to take their quarterback situation in.