For the Kansas City Chiefs, using the franchise tag over the next two weeks might seem like the easy way out.
If contract negotiations stall with Eric Berry, general manager John Dorsey could always slap the franchise tag on him. Heck, recent seasons have seen the CHiefs use the tag freely, putting it on both Branden Albert and Justin Houston. In Albert’s case, he left the following year. With Houston, he was signed to a six-year deal later that summer.
So why is the tag something to avoid if possible? The hit it puts on your salary cap.
Kansas City has approximately $32 million in cap space and needs all of it to retain the services of Berry, Jaye Howard, Tamba Hali, Sean Smith, Jeff Allen, Husain Abdullah, Derrick Johnson, Mike DeVito and others. If the Chiefs use the tag on Berry, they are eating up about $10.6 million of their cap.
Some would say that, considering Berry is likely to get a deal worth $10M/year, that is no big deal. Wrong. The first-year cap hits of a long-term deal are always small because of the bonus that accompanies the signing. If Berry signs a five-year, $50 million deal, his cap hit might be $3 million in 2016. Huge difference.
Next: Cost of the franchise tag
Here’s to hoping Dorsey can get these contracts worked out before the March 1 deadline and avoid a huge cap problem.