What is the NFL Transition Tag and when can teams start using it?

NFL teams can use the franchise tag or even the transition tag during free agency periods.

While most NFL fans have a rudimentary understanding of what the franchise tag is all about, the transition tag is also there to be used in free agency.

It is slightly more complicated, but it is there for teams to not lose their marquee players in free agency. The franchise tag is a one-year salary that equates to the average of the top-five annual salaries at a player’s given position group. This number is predetermined, but a team can only use this negotiating tactic once a season. The same principle does apply to the transition tag as well.

So what exactly is the transition tag and when can NFL teams start to use it in the offseason?

NFL free agency: What is the transition tag and when can a team start to use it?

The transition tag is a tool an NFL front office has available to attempt to retain its key players from hitting the open market. It is very similar to restricted free agency in the NBA, where a team has a right of first refusal to match an offer sheet. Like a franchise tag, it can only be used once a year. Although a transition tag can be rescinded, it cannot be recouped and used on another player.

Should a player sign a contract after using the transition tag, the same negotiating tool cannot be used on the same player or any other player until that particular contract expires. There is one exception to this rule: If a player signs a transition offer sheet. It is a guaranteed one-year contract with a predetermined amount worth the annual average salary of a top 10 player’s position group.

Or a 20 percent salary increase, whichever is higher…

There are a few reasons why this negotiating tactic is rarely deployed. The first is the salary amount this typically equates to is rather large and hard to navigate in a hard cap. The second is well, players hate this. It prevents them from being able to negotiate with other teams, thus suppressing their fair market value. In short, you are turning a free agent into a restricted one.

Keep in mind that there is a seven-day window in which a team has the right to match any contract put on the table for a prospective free agent. Should they match, a “free agent” is forced to sign the contract and back to his team he goes. Given how brutal the game of football is, you can understand why players hate being tagged, especially if it is of the transitional variety of sorts.

So if you want to infuriate a 275-pound human being, transition tag him and remove all doubt.